The Flaming Maelstrom
by justinr1995
Summary: After the attack on Konohagakure no Sato by the Kyuubi, what if Naruto was adopted into a family and a clan, specifically, the Uchiha Clan? After receiving an unexpected gift from one Shisui Uchiha, what changes would this have for our blond haired maverick, and how will it effect the Narutoverse? Rated M for language and future events - No harem
1. Setting the Scene

**AN: Hey guys, this is my first fanfic story, and I got the idea one night so I decided to follow up on it. Please review and let me know what you guys think, I need the advice and _constructive_ criticism. I will be continuing with this story until the end, i don't like to leave things unfinished and unnattended to. Please no flames, if there's one thing I know, it's that nothing could hinder an aspiring writer more than some douche flaming on your story. Any ways, I have read a lot of Naruto fanfics, so if i accidentally use something in my story that was from one of your story's and you don't want me to use it, please let me know so that i can remove it and try change my story up so i don't steal anybody else's ideas.**

**Also, if the first couple chapters seems a little bit fast moving, it's just because I am trying to set the seen and the basic outline of the story to come. If you guys are gonna read this story, you need to be in it for the long haul :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Naruto ... at least I think I won't. Naruto and the aspects of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 1: Setting the scene**

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**(2 hours after Kyuubi attack - Inside ****H****okage Office)**

Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting in his Hokage chair behind his desk, still dressed in his black ninja armour with his headgear resting on the desk. In his arms was a small child with blond hair, three whiskers marks on each cheek, sleeping bundled up in a small blanket - one Naruto Uzumaki.

Also sitting in the room was Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane and Danzo Shimura, the elders of Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)** and members of the Konoha Council.

They were busy discussing the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack on the village, and what had become of the Yondaime Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

"I cannot say for certain how Minato was able to defeat the Kyuubi, but whatever he did seems to have successfully defeated the demon," said Hiruzen flatly. "However," he started, his face turning rather grim as he continued, "upon arriving at the scene of the battle, I found Minato and Kushina's bodies lying lifeless on the ground alongside a sealing altar, with their son, Naruto, lying in her arms ..." He then gestured to the slumbering bundle in his arms before removing the blanket slightly, revealing the boy's stomach and the Eight Trigrams Seal adorning it. He continued, "... I fear that Minato sealed the Kyuubi into this boy if this seal is any indication of that."

Looking on at the boy in his arms sadly, he could only imagine how difficult it must have been for Minato to turn his own son into a Jinchuuriki. After knowing the man for many years, he had known how Minato felt towards the concept of Jinchuuriki, and their treatment or lack thereof.

"What is to become of the boy Hiruzen?" Homura asked.

"I think it would be most beneficial if I took him under my wing to train as a weapon of this village," stated Danzo quickly, trying to snatch at the opportunity to get a hold of the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. "He will become quite powerful under my personal tutelage."

"That will not be necessary Danzo, as it is stated in Minato's will what is to become of his son and who his next of kin will be," said the Sandaime matter-of-factly, inwardly smirking at stopping Danzo's attempt to turn Naruto into one of his emotionless drones.

Danzo visibly scowled, but hid it well from the others in the room. He knew he could do nothing against the will of the boy's father, and he would have to drop the idea of his 'perfect weapon'.

"Leave the carrying-out of Minato's will to me," the Hokage stated, once more looking down at Naruto, smiling fondly at the gurgling baby.

"On the matter of Naruto-kun," began the aged Hokage, "firstly, the identities of his parents are, as of now, an S-Class Secret, and will only be revealed to Naruto when the time is right, as stated in the will. This will be for his protection, as we all know that Minato had amassed quite the number of enemies during his shinobi career, and they would certainly come after Naruto-kun here if they found out who his father was." He allowed some time for the elders to take in the information before continuing. "Secondly, the knowledge of Naruto's status as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki will be revealed to the rest of the village, as it was Minato's hope that Naruto would be seen as hero among Konoha for being the jailor of the Kyuubi and keeping it at bay."

The two Konoha elders nodded at this, although they couldn't help but feel that revealing his status to the village was rather unwise, but they could not deny the dying wish of their former Hokage. "That would be for the best," Koharu agreed, "It will also give the boy a chance at living a normal life as he grows up by being seen as a hero instead of the demon incarnate."

"Exactly," Hiruzen agreed, "that is what Minato and Kushina would have wanted for their son here. Now," he continued, his tone serious once again, "back to the discussion of my reinstatement as Hokage ..."

**(30 minutes later – streets of Konohagakure)**

Hiruzen was slowly walking through the streets of Konoha, calmly, but with purpose, as he held Naruto tightly in his arms. He was on his way to meet the family who Minato and Kushina had decided was to be his next of kin, so that he could grow up with a chance at having a normal life with a family.

He couldn't help but frown at the destruction that was clearly visible on many of the buildings within the village. Columns of smoke clouds rising up from every couple of buildings he passed. The destruction wrought by the Kyuubi was unforgivable, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd somehow failed in protecting his people and the village that his predecessors had built from the ground up. He couldn't dwindle on thoughts of the past though, 'What's done is done', he thought, steeling himself to the fact that what didn't kill them would only make them stronger for it in the end. With that in mind, he continued on to his destination.

**_*KNOCK*, *KNOCK*, *KNOCK*_**

After a couple moments of waiting, sounds of locks being undone and a key being turned alerted the Hokage that the family was indeed home. The door opened to reveal a fair-skinned woman of about 22 years of age, with long black hair and bangs hanging on either side of her face, which roughly shaped and framed her cheeks and black eyes. She was a wearing a brown blouse and a dark purple skirt with an apron over her entire body. "Hokage-sama, to what do I owe this visit? My husband is out at the moment in a meeting with the clan elders," she explained, somewhat startled at having her village's Sandaime Hokage show up at her door.

"Good evening Mikoto-san, may I come in, I have a few things I would like to discuss with you, if that is alright?" he asked Mikoto Uchiha gently, waiting for her response.

"Of course Hokage-sama, please, do come in," she gestured with her free hand to the inside of her home.

"Thank you very much Mikoto-san." He offered her a warm smile and strolled passed her towards the living room area.

Once they were both in the living room, she offered him a seat as well as some tea, which he accepted and declined respectively. It was only then that she noticed the bundle in his arms, and that the bundle was slowly rising and descending at a steady pace. Noticing where she was staring, Hiruzen decided to get to the topic of his visit. "Mikoto-san, as I understand, you were the best friend of Kushina-chan, were you not?"

'Were,' she thought, frowning before widening her eyes in shock, seemingly figuring out the tragic news before it was even revealed, although she didn't want to jump to such tragic conclusions, and just frantically nodded.

The Hokage's face saddened and she immediately noticed this and confirmed her suspicions, tears beginning to form in the back of her eyes. "During the attack of the Kyuubi, in a series of unfortunate events, Kushina has ... she has passed on, along with her husband."

Being Kushina's best friend, she was one of the few people who knew of Kushina's and Minato's relationship, as well as Kushina's pregnancy, and they had often chatted about their sons becoming best friends. The tears now began to freely fall from her eyes at thinking back to these past times and memories that they shared together and, despite her best attempts, was unable to hold back her tears in front of the Sandaime Hokage. He gave her a few minutes to let everything settle in, still cradling the living bundle in his arms.

"As you know," he softly continued to explain, "Kushina was pregnant, and just before the Kyuubi attack she gave birth to her only son." He looked down at the bundle in his arms and proceeded to lift the cover off the baby's face, revealing the blond child within. "I'm afraid that the terrible news is not over yet," said the Sandaime, his gaze softening while staring at baby Naruto. "I won't go into too much details, but due to the nature of the Biju's being masses of chakra with a consciousness, they cannot be physically defeated, and therefore have to be sealed away." Allowing this information to sink in, he continued. "It could not be sealed into an object, as it would not be strong enough to contain the Biju. The same thing with an adult, as an adult's chakra coils are already developed, and would not be able to handle the potency and capacity of a Biju's chakra being forced into their own. For the sealing to be effective, it has to be sealed into a new born baby."

At hearing the Hokage say that, and indirectly reveal that her one-and-truly best-friend's only child had been turned into a jinchuuriki, she started to cry even harder, fighting to bite back more sobs that were escaping her mouth, trying to keep some form dignity in front of her village's Sandaime Hokage, but failing miserably.

"I have come here tonight in the hopes that, because of your relationship with Kushina-chan, as well as their will stating you as the next of kin, you would hopefully be willing to take this child in as your own, so that he may have a chance at living a normal life and having a family, a mother and a father that I know will love him deeply, as there is no telling how the village will treat him after they learn of his status."

She took a few minutes to slightly calm herself down, before speaking up in between her sobs."Can I ... can I hold him?" she asked, looking sadly down at the new-born infant lying in the blanket.

Smiling softly, the Hokage nodded and proceeded to gently hand the baby over to the silently sobbing woman on the couch opposite him, tears still flowing freely down her face.

Holding the baby in her arms, she just stared at the baby while gently swaying him from side to side, in silent contemplation about what she had just been asked, although now that the baby was in her arms, and hearing the possible life her best friend's son would most likely be having without parents, she had already silently made her decision. "Kushina-chan ..." she softly whispered, still looking down at the boy. "... Kushina-chan, you were truly my best and most dear friend," she said, loud enough for the Hokage to hear, but more talking to herself, "and ... in honour of your memory and the bond that we had ... I give you my word that I will love ... and cherish this boy as my own son ... and that I will lay my life down on the line for him without second thought ... you have my word Kushina-chan ..." One last tear escaped her eye, falling onto the face of Naruto.

Smiling that old Hokage smile of his, Hiruzen said, "His name is Naruto ... Naruto Uzumaki."

"No," she said softly with a motherly tone to her voice, shaking her head ever so slightly, "his name is Naruto Uzumaki ... Uchiha." Upon hearing her voice, Naruto slowly opened his eyes and smiled at the woman staring down at him, swinging his arms from side to side while gurgling, prompting her to smile back at his cute face and let forth a few chuckles. Seeing this lifted a burden off the old man's shoulders, knowing that his good friend and successor's son would live with a family that he knew would take great care of him as one of their own, and that he would grow up to become a fine shinobi, just like his father was. He couldn't help but smile brightly at the sight of Mikoto holding up Naruto in her arms protectively.

"Good evening Hokage-sama, is there something wrong?"

The Hokage and Mikoto looked up to see Fugaku Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha (who had just woken up), walking into the living room. "Ah, Fugaku-san, good evening. Good evening to you too Itachi-kun," the Hokage offered warmly.

Both bowed before Mikoto decided to speak up. "Fugaku-kun, during the attack of the Kyuubi, Kushina was ... she was killed. But before that, she had just given birth to her only son, Naruto-kun here. The Hokage came here to tell us that we are the next of kin in Kushina's will, and to offer for us to take in this child and care for him as his family." Allowing her husband to digest the information, she waited several moments. He knew Kushina rather well too, as well as being a good friend of Minato, and would often be at home with his wife when Kushina came over, so he got to know her quite well. Not to mention the fact that she was a very respected Kunoichi in the village for her skill. With a fire in her eyes and motherly instincts taking over, she continued, "I have already decided that in memory of Kushina and her sacrifice, and our friendship that we had, we will be taking Naruto-kun in, and he is going to become a part of this family, as Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha."

Not remembering the last time he saw his wife with such a fire in her eyes, but clearly remembering what happened when he disagreed with her in this state, he just nodded quickly. In all honesty, he wasn't entirely against the idea of taking in Kushina's son, as he knew Kushina well through his wife, so he felt a certain obligation to help her and Minato out. Not that he would let it publicly be known that he was rather quite accepting of taking Naruto in as his son, he was far too proud.

"Well Itachi-kun, looks like you are going to have another brother to look after now," the Hokage stated fondly while ruffling said boy's hair, prompting said boy to smile back at the Hokage at the prospect.

"I've always wanted a younger brother," Itachi started to say, looking fondly at the boy in his mother's arms, "and now I'm going to have two of them ... It's gonna be my job to protect them and make sure they stay safe."

Once again, the Hokage couldn't help but smile again, feeling as if he'd made the correct decision here. "Well, it's getting rather late, and I would hate to keep you up any longer Uchiha-san. I now entrust Naruto's care to you, and I will be checking in regularly to see how he is doing from time to time, not just as a duty as Hokage, but rather I would like to personally get to know the boy as well."

"Of course Hokage-sama, you are welcome to come check in whenever you feel like it," Fugaku stated.

"I'm glad to hear it," he said, getting up and making his way to the door, where Itachi was waiting to let him out. "As there big brother, it is now your job to look after them and protect them from danger Itachi-kun ... do you think you can accomplish this mission?"

Nodding frantically, Itachi answered, "Of course Hokaga-sama, I won't let you down. I will protect them to the best of my abilities," he reassured with a low bow.

Chuckling at the enthusiasm and seriousness of the young boy, he ruffled the small 5 year old's hair and exited their home, continuing on his way back to the Hokage Residence.

Once Hiruzen had left the Uchiha residence, Fugaku turned to his wife before looking down at the baby and back up at his wife. "Mikoto-chan, how could you make a decision like this without even checking with me beforehand?!" asked a bewildered Fugaku, finally mustering up the courage to confront his wife about this.

"There was no question whether we would adopt Naruto-kun if Kushina one day died, we had discussed this a couple times, and unfortunately she ... she has, and so help me we are going to take care of and raise this boy as if he was our own son!" Mikoto answered firmly. "You always said you wanted another son Fugaku, and here Kami has given us one; please Fugaku-kun ..."

"I understand how important this is for you," he said, while glancing over to Naruto still wrapped in his blanket, sleeping soundly in Mikoto's arms. "He is a rather cute one though, isn't he," he said softly as a statement rather than a question, revealing the side of him that he only ever revealed to his wife.

Eyes widening, Mikoto let the tears she was holding back fall, while holding onto Naruto just a little bit tighter."Thank you ... Fugaku-kun ..."

"Don't thank me Mikoto-chan, he is our son now, and if you're happy, I'm happy," he replied with the sincerest of smiles, fondly looking between his wife and his new son.

Looking back down at the boy tightly wrapped in her arms, Mikoto couldn't help but let a few more tears escape. 'Rest in peace Kushina ... I will take care of Naruto-kun, give him a family and protect him with my life ... you have my word.'

"Kaasan, could I please hold him?"

Mikoto and Fugaku jumped, momentarily forgetting Itachi was still in the room. After regaining her composure, she turned around to face him."Sorry Itachi-kun, tomorrow morning rather, but right now, he needs to be put into bed, and you need to go to sleep now as well," she said, smiling warmly at her eldest son.

"Okay Kaasan, goodnight." Looking down at the little boy in his mother's arms, he reached down and held onto one of his little hands, whispering softly as he leaned a bit closer. "Goodnight Naruto-kun." Seeing her eldest son warm up to her newest one, she couldn't help but smile, thinking about what the future would hold for them.

**(7 years later)**

"Niisan, please can't you help us with our shurikenjutsu?" pleaded a 7 year old Naruto, who was now wearing his signature orange jumpsuit given to him by the Sandaime Hokage, with his zip pulled down a third of the way, revealing his black shirt with an orange swirl on the front. His orange jacket was emblazoned with the Uzumaki swirl on the back with an Uchiha fan symbol on each shoulder.

"Yeah niisan, we would ask father, but even we can see that you're better at the shurikenjutsu than he is," added Sasuke, who had a black shirt on with the signature Uchiha high collar style with his blue shorts.

"Looks like wanting to train all the time to get stronger runs in the family," commented Shisui, Itachi's best friend who was sitting there with the three of them. "I have no doubt in my mind that they will become capable shinobi one day."

"Of course we will Shisui-niisan! We need to become stronger so that we can protect the Hidden Leaf Village, and also so that I can become the greatest Hokage one day, dattebayo!"

"You know what Naruto-kun, I think I'll hold you to that," smiled Shisui, while ruffling Naruto's hair.

'It always surprises me how his ideals and beliefs are so stunningly similar to Shisui's, and they're so close too, one would honestly mistake them for being family,' thought Itachi. While analysing the two boys, he motioned for them to come closer. As they were within arms reach, he prodded Sasuke's forehead with his left hand's index and middle finger, while simultaneously prodding Naruto's forehead with his right hand's index and middle finger."Sorry Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, maybe some other time, okay?"

"You always do that niisan!" exclaimed an annoyed Sasuke. "You always poke us in the forehead before saying you're sorry and then 'maybe next time'."

"Ah, don't be too hard on your older brother Sasuke-kun, he's an ANBU captain now after all, he has a lot of responsibilities now, so unfortunately his time is not only his own anymore," explained Shisui, before getting a thoughful look in his eye and smiling down at the two younger boys. "How about Itachi and I take you guys to get some ice pops at the Uchiha Senbei?"

"You'd really take us there Shisui-niisan?" asked an ever eager Naruto.

"Sure, of course we will. We'll even let you guys ride on our backs there."

"We will?" asked a caught-off-guard Itachi, which was something extremely difficult to do to him, considering he was an ANBU captain, and he was always on guard.

"Yeah, they look like they were training quite hard before we got here. It's the least we can do," he replied to Itachi with an all-to-sweet smile.

"You bet we were Shisui-niisan! Well, I call shotgun on your back," Naruto said while jumping and landing on Shisui's back.

Sasuke proceeded to; more gracefully of course; embark his older brother's back before they all headed off to the famed Uchiha Senbei. It was an odd sight for anyone who was not an Uchiha, seeing the two older boys carrying the two youngsters.

It was well known throughout the clan of Naruto's adoption into the Uchiha clan. Due to the fact that he was not an Uchiha by blood, and that he housed a certain Nine Tailed Fox in his gut, many of the existing clansmen and villagers resented him for it. He was highly disliked among the many Uchiha's, save for the few who didn't care whether he was an Uchiha by blood or not.

Such people who welcomed him were the owners of the Uchiha Senbei, Teryaki and Uruchi Uchiha, or better known to Sasuke and Naruto as Ojisan and Obasan. They would often see Naruto and Sasuke coming back home after a day's worth of training and would treat them to an ice pop or some senbei, although Naruto much more preferred ramen from a small shop called Ichiraku's Ramen. According to him, they served the best ramen in the village, and he was also very fond of the owners, Teuchi-ojiisan and Ayame-neechan, who were likewise very fond of him.

Among the others who accepted Naruto were Shisui and his father, as well as Naruto's family. Although Fugaku didn't show it, he loved his family very much, and was extremely proud of his sons, despite one of them not being blood related. Although he loved all his sons equally, he tended to fuss more over Itachi than his two youngest sons, who would often look to try and make their father proud. Despite their best efforts, they would always be compared to Itachi, but they held nothing against their older brother for that. He was an Uchiha prodigy after all, graduating from the Academy at age 7 and mastering his sharingan at age 8. He became a Chunin at age 10 and an ANBU captain thereafter at age 13.

After buying their ice pops, Shisui snapped his in two and gave his other half to Naruto who was still riding on his back, and Itachi gave his other half to Sasuke who was still riding on his back. "Hey, niisan," began Sasuke, while manoeuvring his head to his brothers right hand side, right next to his brothers face, "why is the Uchiha Clan's fan symbol the same as the crest symbol for Konoha's Military Police Force?"

"Ah, so you've finally noticed have you, Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah, I've also wandered about that niisan," added Naruto, while tapping lightly on Shisui's shoulder. "Can you and Shisui-niisan explain it please?"

Nodding to each other, the two elder teens began to explain to them a little bit of the history of the Uchiha clan, explaining how the Military Police Force of Konoha came to be, having the undivided attention of both youngsters, who were listening intently from the respective teen's back, while keeping a firm grip on their ice pops. While on their way back to Itachi's and his two younger brothers house, they walked passed a group of Uchiha elders who were making their way to what looked like the Naka Shrine. The two 7 year olds didn't really take notice of it, but the two elder teens noticed the firm gaze they were receiving from the elders, knowing exactly what it was for.

Once they arrived back at their house, Itachi bid farewell to his friend, and Naruto and Shisui shared a fist bump before Shisui waved goodbye and winked at Naruto, and left for his own home.

Upon entering their kitchen, Naruto was ecstatic to see the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, his surrogate grandfather, sitting at the table, drinking tea with his mother. "Kaachan! Ojiisan! What are you doing here?" asked a happy Naruto as he ran for his mother and gave her a hug before running towards the Hokage and giving him the same treatment.

"Hello there Naruto-kun, I'm actually here to see you, and you too Sasuke-kun, as you two are the future generation of this village's protectors," replied the old Hokage with a smile.

"So, you've come to hand over that hat of yours to me then, have you Ojiisan?" Naruto retorted, wearing his trademark foxy grin.

Chuckling at his surrogate grandson's antics, the Sandaime couldn't help but smile fondly back at the boy, as he always seemed to be able to make him smile. "Not just yet Naruto-kun, maybe one day though. I've actually come to tell you two that next year, you guys will be able to start at the Academy, and your training to become shinobi will begin." This news of course brought big smiles to both of the youngster's faces, as they had been rearing to get into the Academy to become great ninja just like their older brother.

"Yeah, we finally get to train to become real shinobi, just like Itachi-niisan and Shisui-niisan!" exclaimed an ever-eager Naruto, who was jumping and pumping his fist into the air, causing everyone else to chuckle at his typical behaviour. "Sasuke and I will need to train even harder now so that we can become strong just like them."

"You bet," added Sasuke, wearing a cocky smirk, "we'll need to speak to Tousan later when he gets home and ask him to start training us."

"Well it seems like you two can handle things from here," replied the Sandaime after finishing up his tea. "I guess I'll be taking my leave now."

"Okay Ojiisan, come back any time. And next time you come back, we'll be even stronger, and I'll be one step closer to taking that hat from you, dattebayo!"

'So much like his mother,' he thought with a sad smile. 'If only Kushina and Minato were here to see how well you've grown Naruto, and to see what a splendid job you're friend Mikoto has done Kushina,' thought the Hokage with a warm smile as he gave a passing glance to their family photo. It had a smiling Mikoto and, oddly enough, Fugaku as he stared down at his three sons. Naruto was hanging on his brothers' shoulders with Sasuke laughing and joining in on the fun, while Itachi was giving his two younger siblings warm smiles. "Oh, I have no doubt about that Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. Until next time," he said, while turning around and waving back at them with his left hand, at the same time taking a puff from his pipe in his right hand.

**(2 months later)**

Sasuke and Naruto had been taught how to perform the **Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)** 1 month ago and had been practising ever since. Sasuke, who's affinity was fire, was able to completely master this jutsu within a week. Naruto on the other hand, had a natural affinity for fire and wind as far as they knew, because after channeling chakra into the chakra paper, it split in half and both halves burned in flames. It wasn't unheard of for someone to have two elemental affinities, just a welcoming surprise for someone so young to exhibit two elements.

2 days ago he was finally able to burn an entire leaf on the palm of his hand using only his fire nature chakra, so Sasuke could now help him learn the actual jutsu. He was taking slightly longer to learn to control his fire nature, but Sasuke was a prodigy, so he was able to master it with little to no effort. "Okay Naruto, so in order to do this jutsu, you need to gather chakra in the pit of your stomach, then do the hand seals: Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Horse and Tiger. After which you bring your right hand up to your mouth and exhale it," explained Sasuke while showing him the hand seals.

"Okay! Let me give it a shot," exclaimed Naruto. 'Gather chakra in the pit of my stomach, do the hand seals, bring my right hand to my mouth, and ...'

**"Katon: Gokak****y****u no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)"** shouted Naruto, after which he exhaled a medium sized fireball, half the size of one Sasuke could do at the moment. "How was that?" asked Naruto through a couple of pants.

"Not bad Naruto, for your first time doing this that was pretty good," answered Sasuke, a genuine smile on his face. "I'd say within this week, you should have this jutsu down, just like I do, and then we can surprise Tousan and show him what we've learned."

"Yeah, I can't wait to see the look on his face," said Naruto, who was wearing his foxy grin, although this one was bigger than usual. "We should really thank Itachi-niisan and Shisui-niisan for teaching us to do this; maybe get Itachi some cabbage and onigiri with seaweed in it; you know how much he likes that stuff, although I'm not really sure why; it's disgusting. And maybe we could get Shisui-niisan some senbei from Ojisan and Obasan."

"Yeah, let's wait until after we shock Tousan with this jutsu in about a week's time to start thanking them," replied Sasuke with a cocky smirk.

"You got it Sasuke," said Naruto with an equally cocky grin. Refocusing on the lake in front of him, Naruto got into a stance once more. "Now, let's try this jutsu again."

**(1 week later)**

"Come on Tousan, just a little bit further, then Sasuke and I can show you what we've been doing for the past week," said an excited Naruto, who was half jumping, half skipping to their destination, unable to contain himself.

"Yeah Tousan, we've been working hard on this, and I think you'll like what we're going to show you," added Sasuke with a cocky smirk.

'I wonder what they've been working on that's got them this excited, Naruto even more so than usual,' thought Fugaku, who was following them on the small dock in the lake. Once they got to the edge of the dock, the two youngsters walked to the front and told their father to watch from behind them.

"Okay, here we go!" exclaimed Naruto, giving Sasuke a nod and receiving one in return. As they were starting the jutsu, as soon as they began the hand seals, Fugaku's eyes widened in shock, as he had no idea that they were able to perform this jutsu yet. He was still going to hold off on teaching them this for 6 months, or at least until they started the Academy.

Finishing on the Tiger seal, they brought their hands up to their mouths and shouted the name of the jutsu. **"Katon: Gokak****y****u no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu),"** said both boys in unison, where they then proceeded to exhale a constant torrent of flames from their mouth that took the shape of a fireball. But as they were doing this, their fireballs made contact, merging into one and forming an even greater fireball, which they held for a few more seconds, before they finally stopped and allowed the jutsu to dissipate. When both boys turned around, they saw that their father was already walking away, and was almost to the end of the dock. At this, both boys frowned sadly, and felt somewhat disappointed with themselves, as they really wanted to make their father proud.

But just as their father was about to get off of the dock, he stopped, and without turning around, began speaking. "Well done you boys, you've both made me very proud. You are now recognised as adults of the Uchiha Clan, and don't let anybody ever tell you any different." He then turned around and gave them both his most genuine smile, something neither of them had ever seen. "You guys are both strong in your own right, so I don't want you guys to follow in Itachi's footsteps, but rather walk your own paths to becoming great."

With that, he turned around and left the two boys standing there at the edge of the dock, both frozen in joy and ecstasy with smiles slowly growing, and a warm feeling in the pit of their stomachs, the kind of warm feeling that the jutsu they just performed could never cause. 'Thanks, Tousan ... ' both boys thought at the same time, silently making a promise to work even harder now to get stronger than Itachi.

**(1 year later)**

A year later, the boys had finally joined the Academy, and had been attending for one term so far, where both boys were at the tops of their class, with Sasuke always coming first and Naruto following a close second, because Sasuke was better with the theory work. The teachers were also reluctant at first to teach Naruto anything, but a very serious talk from the Uchiha clan head seemed to have swayed their decisions to teach him properly.

They were really enjoying it at the Academy, they weren't really making friends yet, because they had just started at the Academy, and were focusing solely on their training to get stronger than their brother. Speaking of Itachi, he had been distancing himself from the family lately, and he and their parents often got into arguments, over what, the youngsters didn't know, but they would often hear them while lying in their beds, arguing with each other about clan related problems. He was also distancing himself from Shisui, although this didn't stop Naruto from still going to see him every second or third day, either just talking with the older boy, asking him for help with his training, or just to follow the elder teen around and keep him company, and Shisui was extremely grateful for the company.

They were training together late one afternoon, practising a little bit of taijutsu, when they were joined by an elder man whom Naruto had never seen before. Shisui of course knew who this man was - he was one of Konoha's elders, the old war hawk Danzo Shimura. Naruto didn't know why this man was interrupting their training, but Shisui knew all to well why he was here. He was here to question Shisui's allegiances, because he was unsure whether he would help the Uchihas with the coup d'etat or if he was going to help Konoha. "What are you doing here Danzo-san, I'm rather busy at the moment with Naruto-kun here and we weren't supposed to meet for another day?" asked Shisui, carefully eyeing the older man.

"Hey, Shisui-niisan, who's this old man?" questioned Naruto, unsure of what was going on, getting a slightly bad feeling about this.

"Watch your tongue boy," spat Danzo, glaring daggers at Naruto through his one visible eye, "you will refer to me as Danzo-sama, and I have not come here to talk, Shisui."

"I see," said Shisui, while discreetly grabbing a kunai and holding it behind his back, while Danzo did the same. But before he could completely get Naruto out of the way, Danzo threw his kunai in his direction and it hit Naruto's left eye, cutting it from above his eyebrow to just above his cheek bone.

"AHHHHH! MY EYE!" cried Naruto, as tears started to fall from his right eye after he quickly ripped off a piece of his jacket and was now holding it over his left eye, rolling around furiously in the dirt.

Shisui activated his Sharingan and glared hatefully at the old war hawk. He immediately threw his kunai at Danzo while at the same time just finishing off his hand seals and shouting, **"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Pheonix Flower Jutsu).****"**

Danzo dodged left and right, avoiding all the smaller fireballs, but realised that he was at a disadvantage because of the cast on his right arm, covering up his right arm that contained the Shodai Hokage's, Hashirama Senju's, cells. He thought that he would be able to catch Shisui off guard when he was by himself, but unfortunately he was not alone, and he could not afford to kill this boy, as he did not want to risk the safety of his village by potenetially releasing the Kyuubi. Danzo brought his left hand up to his mouth, an exhaled a steady stream of wind chakra into the ground, kicking up dust everywhere and forming a natural smoke screen. He used this smoke screen as a diversion to manoeuvre himself to the back of Shisui and touch the back of his neck, placing his Juinjutsu seal on him, which paralysed Shisui.

In a feat of incredible speed, for someone as old as Danzo, as well as someone who had a cast on his right arm and was wearing rather baggy clothes and a robe, he positioned himself in front of Shisui and forcibly removed his right Sharingan eye and began to carefully place it in a protective container he took out from his robe.

**"Katon: Gokak****y****u no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)."**

Looking towards the sound of the voice, he saw the small boy from earlier, shooting off a rather large fireball at him, surprising him momentarily. He was forced to jump a good distance away from Shisui before he could finish taking his other eye. The fireball hit the ground a few meters in front of Danzo, who held up his arms as protection from the heat. The fireball kicked up more dust and obscured his view of Shisui and the smaller boy. When the dust cleared, the small boy and Shisui were both gone without a trace of where they could have left to. Realising there was nothing more he could do here as Shisui would now know he was coming and could possibly get help, he released the Juinjutsu seal that he had placed on Shisui to cover his own tracks, as there was no point in keeping it on him any longer. He got the Sharingan with the Kotoamatsukami ability, so his mission was accomplished.

**(With Naruto)**

Still jumping from tree branch to tree branch, with Shisui under his shoulder, and the left side of his face wrapped in the ripped off pieces of his jacket, was Naruto. Feeling that he was far away enough, he jumped down to the ground and gently placed Shisui on the ground, before wrapping half of Shisui's face with more torn jacket material.

"Are you alright Shisui-niisan? asked a concerned Naruto through heavy pants, not even caring that he had himself just lost his left eye. "Can you move at all?"

Before he could attempt to answer and try to say that he couldn't move, the seals all over him began to recede into his body and disappear completely. "Yeah, I'm fine now, I can move and speak again. But how are you feeling? And how's your eye?!" exclaimed Shisui, one visible eye widening on remembering what had happened.

Naruto rubbed the back of his sheepishly, speaking softly while trying is best to hide the pain he was feeling. "Don't worry about it Shisui-niisan, as long as you're okay. Who was that guy anyway, and why did he just attack you?"

"His name was Danzo, but that's all you need to know, the rest is not important. What is important is getting that left eye of yours fixed, because it's all my fault that you were caught up in my business, and for that I am truly sorry, Naruto-kun," he answered with a sad look on his face, staring at the ground with the guilt building up inside him.

"How are you going to fix my eye? It's gone, I'll never be able to see out of it again." questioned a confused Naruto.

"Leave that to me, I have a mission that I want to give to you, but I'll explain that later, right now, we need to go see my friend Naori Uchiha. She's a Medic-Nin, so she'll be able to help us out and fix that eye of yours." With that sorted, they left to Shisui's friend's house, keeping a decent pace, but not too fast so that Naruto couldn't keep up.

Once they arrived at her house, the door opened and revealed a female of about 18 years old, with long, wavy purple hair with cropped bangs that hung over her forehead. She wore a standard cloak of the Uchiha clan and had multiple bandages strapped to her left side. She also had an eye patch over her left eye. "Shisui-kun, what happened to you, and who is this boy?!" exclaimed Naori as soon as she opened the door, seeing the bandages that both had over a side of their face.

"Calm down Naori-chan, we're both fine, and this is Naruto-kun," said Shisui as he gestured towards Naruto.

"Yo," said Naruto, with a two-finger salute.

"Uh, hello there," replied Naori with a small wave, while glancing back at Shisui and whispering into his ear, "How do you know this boy? Isn't he the ..."

He just nodded but gave her a small glare telling her to drop that part. "He's Itachi's younger brother, but that's not important right now, I need you to do me a favour, but before I tell you the favour I need you to promise me that you will do what I ask of you."

Looking into his eye, she could see how serious he was being, and just nodded her head. "I promise. Now what is this favour?" Before he answered, he quickly glanced over to Naruto and put him into a powerful sleep induced Genjutsu. He then glanced back to Naori and began to explain.

**(1 day later)**

The next day, Naruto slowly started opening his one good eye, and slowly lifted himself up, groaning in a bit of pain due to the stiffness of his body. Looking around, Naruto noticed that he was sitting in the middle of the forest training ground that he, Sasuke and Itachi usually came to. Not knowing what was going on, Naruto slowly got up and began making his way back to the Uchiha compound to apologise to his mother, who was probably wandering where he was the whole night.

As he rounded a corner in the streets of Konoha, he bumped into someone and fell backwards onto his rear. "Oomph. Ugh, I'm sorry about that, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going, and I can't really see properly with only one eye," explained Naruto as he slowly got back to his feet.

"Oh, not to worry, it was my faul- ... Naruto-kun!" exclaimed the Sandaime, who was staring at Naruto in complete shock. "Where have you been?! And what happened to you?!" he said loudly, noticing the bloodied bandages on the left side of his head and his scruffed up clothes.

"Me, uh, well I woke up this morning in the training grounds, I'm not sure how I got there, but I was on my way home to apologise to Kaachan, she's probably worried about where I was all night," he replied rather sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with his hand nervously. "And yesterday, when Shisui-niisan and I were training, some old man named Danzo attacked us and cut my eye with his kunai. He took Niisan's right eye as well!" cried Naruto, remembering the events of the previous day.

Hearing this, the Sandaime Hokage frowned deeply, having had a strange feeling that his old friend Danzo would've done something like this. He knew there would be nothing he could do to prove what he'd done, as nobody would believe the word of an 8 year old boy. Danzo was always good at covering his tracks. But after another second of pondering on what Naruto just said, he took on a look of great sorrow and lowered his head, while at the same time putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder for comfort of what he was about to tell him.

"Naruto-kun ... you should know that ... last night while you were out ... your brother Itachi ... he ... he killed your entire clan last night ... the only known survivor was Sasuke-kun ... and now you..." explained the Sandaime, giving Naruto a couple minutes to digest the news of that tragic night and watching his expressions closely. After hearing what his Ojiisan just said, all Naruto could do was stare into the space in front of him, looking completely devoid of life, not really sure of what he had just been told.

"W-what ..." choked out Naruto softly, a huge lump forming in the back of his throat, his heart pounding and his body filling with adrenaline. After another minute of just staring and seeing the Sandaime nod his head sadly at him, the tears started to flow and run down his face, while at the same time he began to shiver and shudder involuntarily, before he fell to his knees and began to cry even harder, sniffling in between each of his sobs.

Seeing the state that his surrogate grandson was in, he bent down to Naruto's level and enveloped him in a warm hug, a hug that was full of love and gave comfort like only your family could give. Feeling someone hugging him, Naruto immediately reached out and grabbed onto the person who was hugging him and held on to the person as if his life depended on it. The pair stayed like this for 30 minutes, before Naruto passed out from exhaustion and crying his heart out. Seeing that Naruto was finally asleep, Hiruzen picked him up and continued to hold him protectively, while walking with him back to his home.

10 hours later, Naruto woke up, but when he opened his eye, he found himself staring up at a white ceiling. The room he was in had cream coloured walls with paintings all around the walls, but not too many to be overwhelming. After first seeing the white ceiling, he figured he was in the hospital, but after seeing all the pictures he realised he was in a room in someone else's house, as he didn't recognise the room at all.

Sitting up, he held his hand over his chest in the area above his heart, which was hurting quite badly. After taking some time to get his bearings, he began to remember all the events that led up to this point and what his Ojiisan had told him, and he started to get teary-eyed again, grabbing tightly onto the sheets his hands were on. As he started to sob once again, he heard footsteps outside his door.

As the door opened, the Sandaime peered his head inside, and saw Naruto sitting up in his bed with his tear-filled eye, sobbing softly on the bed. "How are you feeling Naruto-kun?" asked a concerned Sarutobi, "I can't imagine what you must be feeling right now."

"I ... I ... I never got a ... a chance to s-s-say goodbye ... to Kaachan a-and ..." stuttered a sobbing Naruto, "and Tousan ... and I just don't ... I just don't understand why ... why would Itachi ... he ... I thought ..." he repeated in between his sobs, slowly quickening his breathing before he began to hyper ventilate.

"Breathe Naruto-kun, please, you need to breathe!" ordered the Sandaime, who dashed toward Naruto with great speed, while gently rubbing his back and trying to comfort him as best he could.

After the Sandaime started rubbing his back, he slowly started to breathe again and regain some form of composure. "Do you know why ... why he did it Ojiisan?" Naruto softly asked through baited breath, still just staring ahead of him.

Shaking his head slowly, Hiruzen closed his eyes while softly rubbing Naruto's back some more. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but nobody knows why." replied the Sandaime apologetically.

Nodding his head slowly, Naruto slowly got up and stretched his body out a bit. Turning to the Hokage and looking down at his feet. "Hey, Ojiisan, do you mind if I ... use your bathroom, and maybe have a shower as well - if that's okay with you?" he asked softly, his posture looking as if the whole world was on his shoulders.

"Of course Naruto-kun, you are my guest, and I would like to help you in anyway I possibly can," he answered with a warm smile. "The bathroom is to the right out this room, second door on your left. When you're finished, you can come downstairs, we can get you something to eat and then we can go to the hospital and see if Sasuke-kun has woken up."

Hearing this had Naruto's eye widen to astronomical proportions before he shouted out. "Sasuke! I almost forgot about him, how's he doing, what happened to him last night, did he get hurt?!"

"Whoah, slow down Naruto-kun, we found him last night unconscious in the streets of the Uchiha Clan compound, but we can talk about all that once you're done, so get finished up and we can be on our way."

"Okay Ojiisan, I won't be too long," said Naruto, who then hurriedly walked out of the room, keeping his mind solely on his brother to keep from thinking on other things he just didn't want to think about at the moment.

'Naruto-kun ... I'm so sorry that you had to go through this at such a young age, nobody should have to endure the pain and suffering that you and Sasuke-kun will be going through and the burden that you guys will have to carry,' thought a heart-sore Sarutobi, who hated seeing his surrogate grandson in a state like this.

**(With Naruto)**

As Naruto entered the bathroom, he locked the door behind him and began to remove the clothes he was wearing in front of the mirror, staring into it while at the same time thinking about all that had happened. But at the same time he told himself that there was no point in putting his whole life on hold and becoming broody over what happened the previous night. He was still immensely sad and would mourn for many months to come, but he would try his best to move on, as his parents would not want him to stop living his life because of their deaths.

His parents had also explained to him before that he was adopted into the Uchiha Clan, and that his parents had died on the night of the Kyuubi no Yoko's attack on the village. Although Mikoto and Fugaku were not his parents by blood, he loved them as if they were and he would live on with his life, to honour them and the life that they gave him.

As he was staring at himself in the mirror, he began to remove the bandage around his head, but once the bandage was gone, he noticed that he could ... see. And that his left eye was a Sharingan ... a fully matured Sharingan with 3 tomoe!

'My left eye is a Sharingan!' thought Naruto with widened eyes, completely in shock. 'But how is that possible, I'm not part of the Uchiha Clan?! Maybe I should tell Ojiisan?'

But just as he was thinking that and took a closer look at the Sharingan eye that now resided in his left eye socket, the tomoe began to spin and he was placed in a Genjutsu that showed him a memory of Shisui. He began explaining where the eye came from and that he had entrusted it to him, so that his will would continue to live on in Naruto, and that maybe he could help to rebuild the Uchiha Clan better than before. But rebuild it without the Uchiha Clan's hatred and resentment they had developed for Konoha over the years.

After the Genjutsu-induced memory which was left to activate when he looked into Shisui's eye, he suddenly found himself back in the Sandaime's bathroom, standing in front of the mirror, staring at his left eye, with a few tears falling for one of his best friends.

After getting over the initial shock and sadness, he proceeded to shower while the entire time thinking on what the memory of Shisui told him, and what he was going to live for in order to accomplish Shisui's last wish, considering all that had gone on in the past day. Thinking about it all made his head hurt, but he was never one to quit, and thought on it anyway, damn the painful consequences!

Once he was done with his shower, he got dressed, covered up his face again and made his way downstairs to meet with the Sandaime, where he was given a bento with some hot tea, after which they left the Third Hokage's home and made for the hospital to check on Naruto's brother.

**(At the hospital)**

Once they arrived at the hospital, they quickly made their way to the receptionist to find Sasuke's room number and once they had it, Naruto dashed there with speed that surprised the Sandaime Hokage. After finding Sasuke's room, the attending doctor explained to them that Sasuke was in a coma caused by severe mental stress and trauma, and would only likely wake up within a month's time. With the diagnosis now made clear, Naruto insisted that he be allowed to stay with Sasuke until he woke up, as they were the only family that the other had left.

After 3 weeks, Naruto had more or less returned to his former self, making jokes, laughing and having fun, but as a method to help him with his family's death, he began to pull pranks on people to pass the time; and funny enough, he really enjoyed it, and was pretty good at it too, so he stuck with it. But nevertheless, he always stayed by Sasuke's side, day and night, never leaving the room for more than an hour at a time. He had even moved another bed into the room so that he had somewhere to sleep during the night. This became his new home while he was waiting for Sasuke to recover. Home is where the heart is, after all.

**(1 month later)**

It was late afternoon, and Naruto had been running around the village pulling more pranks than normal. After waiting for a month, Naruto began to grow restless and worried about his brother, as he was still in a coma, therefore the need for more pranks to keep his mind preoccupied. After a days worth of good pranking, Naruto found himself sleeping in the chair opposite Sasuke's bed, absolutely exhausted from the day's activities.

Unbeknownst to the sleeping orange-clad Uzumaki Uchiha, was that a certain other Uchiha was beginning to stir. Opening his eyes ever so slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light of the room, Sasuke found himself staring up at a white ceiling. Allowing himself some time to think and catch up, he remembered the night when he came home to see dead bodies of all the Uchihas he knew, littering his Clan's compound. And then he remembered Itachi showing him how he killed all his clansmen, over and over and over again.

He slowly raised himself up from his bed so that he was sitting up against his headboard, letting the tears drop from his face. Hearing something moving, he quickly wiped the tears away so nobody would notice, looked to his left, and what he saw managed to bring tears back to his eyes, but this time tears of joy. Sitting in the chair opposite his bed, was none other than his non-blood related brother, who could've been blood related considering how close the two were.

'Naruto ... you're alive ...! So Itachi never got you ...' Sasuke thought, while wearing his most genuine smile, thanking the Kami himself that he was not left alone. That he still had his brother and his absolute best friend who he loved dearly, despite never vocalising his feelings.

Hearing somebody moving around, Naruto slowly opened his eye to see a crying Sasuke who was smiling fondly at him. "Sasuke ... you're awake!" cried Naruto, as he jumped out of his seat and enveloped Sasuke in a bone-crushing hug, who Sasuke was more than willing to uncharacteristically return. "It's good to have you back, Teme," stated Naruto while still holding on to Sasuke.

At this, Sasuke just smirked through his teary eyed face. "Were you worried about me, Dobe?" asked Sasuke, already knowing the answer, and although he wouldn't say it, he was glad Naruto was still holding him, giving him the familial support he needed.

"You're damn right I was Teme, you've been out of it for a month! I thought you were never going to wake up," said Naruto, who by now also had a few tears coming from his eye.

"Well, I'm back now, and I'm fine, so you can let go of me," retorted Sasuke, not meaning a word of what he said, or wanting Naruto to let go of him.

Letting go of Sasuke and doing what he asked, Naruto moved back to his seat where he gave Sasuke one more smile, before his face became serious and he wiped away the tears. "We need to talk about what happened that night Teme, and there is something I need to show you as well," said Naruto, a hint of seriousness in his tone, while at the same time looking a little sad.

"Yeah, we definitely need to talk. If you don't mind, I'd like to ... go first, I need to get this off my chest," replied Sasuke with a sad look in his eyes, to which Naruto just nodded to and waited for him to continue. Taking his time to gather his thoughts, Sasuke then went on to explain the night's events, from when he arrived at the Uchiha compound, to the point where he found their parents lying dead on the floor in there living room, with Itachi standing over them.

He then also told him about how he was forced by their brother to watch him massacre all their clansmen, over and over and over again, and how he watched their parents die at his hands countless times. While he was explaining all this, he stopped momentarily when he noticed Naruto was pointing at him, with his one visible eye wide in shock. "What? What's wrong?" he asked frustratingly, as it seemed Naruto had lost his voice, his extremely loud and brash voice, for the first time in his life.

"Teme ... your eyes ... you've activated your Sharingan," said Naruto, who's one eye was still wide at seeing his brother's Sharingan with 1 tomoe in each eye, before his expression turned into a grin.

"What are you smiling at dobe? Besides the fact that my bloodline has finally woken."

"Oh nothing, but I think it's time I explain to you everything that happened with me." Naruto then began to explain the events of that night from his perspective, how he and Shisui were training and were attacked by the guy named Danzo, who cut Naruto's eye and stole Shisui's right eye. He then continued to explain how they arrived at Shisui's friend's house, where he couldn't remember anything past that.

"Also teme, you should know," started Naruto, who began unbandaging his head, revealing his new left eye, "that I also have the Sharingan," finished Naruto with his foxy grin. "This is what Shisui-niisan left me before he was probably killed in the massacre as well," he replied sadly, looking down at the ground.

Getting over his initial shock, Sasuke then looked again just to make sure he was really seeing a fully matured Sharingan in his brother's left eye, before dropping his surprised expression and taking on a smirk of his own. "Looks like you really are an Uchiha now after all, hey Dobe."


	2. You're the Kyuubi no Kitsune

**AN: Hey guys, I decided to get up two chapters as fast as possible so that you guys could sort of get a feel for the story and the way I'm writing it. I've decided to have the Japanese name for the jutsu with the english anime translation in brackets, as you never really see anyone using those translations, so I decided I would change things up a bit. My story line will be following close to canon for the most part, although I will throw in my own twists and turns along the way that will make it different from canon, so bear with me, please. Also, I won't be making a God-like Naruto. As much as some people like that, I can't stand it when Naruto is invincible, so he won't be winning all the time. I suppose with that being said, on to the next chapter.**

**Oh, and if anyone wants to try and create a deviantart version of my Naruto, please be my guest and send me a link so I can add it to the story. It would always be cool to be able to see my creation as a picture than just what I can imagine with the words I write. Anyways, to the chapter, for real this time.**

**Disclaimer:** **I do not nor ever will own Naruto ... at least I think I won't. Naruto and the aspects of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 2: You Are the Kyuubi no Kitsune!**

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It was a peaceful morning in Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**. The sun had just finished rising and had enveloped the entire village in its warm rays of sunshine. All was quiet and still, save for the early morning shop owners who were readying their stores for a day's worth of business, and the usual Chunin and ANBU that were doing their morning patrols.

But there was one certain individual who was in the process of being chased and hunted down by several Chunin, Jounin and a couple ANBU. The reason for this chase was because once the sun had risen, and you were now able to get a good view of the Hokage Monument, one would be able to notice that it had been painted over with several markings and crude signs, making a mockery of Konoha's most precious monument and revered past Hokages.

The person behind this ludicrous act was none other than one Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, who was now 12 years old and was being chased down so that he could be punished for his actions.

The reason for this prank; which was one of Naruto's favourite things to do, which many of the villagers of Konoha had the misfortune of knowing first hand as well; was because today was the day of the Academy's Graduation Exam, which would be the decider on whether you would become a ninja or not.

Naruto now wore a black and orange long sleeved shirt, with the sleeves of his top reaching a bit before his wrist with fishnet armour sticking out from the edges. He also had a sleeveless flak jacket on with no collar that had the Uchiha fan symbol on his back with the Uzumaki swirl in the centre of the fan. It was similar in style to the jackets that Chunin rank or higher ninja would where, but this one was made for ninja who had not yet attained those ranks yet. On his lower back was a chakra blade that was placed in a horizontal sheath, with the Uzumaki swirl on the one side of its handle's hilt and the Uchiha fan on the other side.

He had long, three-quarter black pants that went halfway down to his shins. From where the pants ended, he had white bandages going down to his ankles, which would disappear into his black shinobi sandals that came up just passed his ankles. On his right thigh, he had a shuriken and kunai pouch that was strapped there with the help of another white bandage, as well as a slightly larger satchel strapped to the back right of his belt.

On his face was a spandex mask that covered the lower half of his face, with a plain black piece of material acting as a headband going around his forehead that was drooped a little to cover his left eye, exposing only his right cerulean-blue orb. His headband also helped to hold up his spiky blond bangs, that hung slightly over his headband and covered most of it, with 2 longer bangs on either side of his face extending to just past his ears. His side burns stopped more or less at the same length as those 2 bangs, giving him an almost identical hair style to the Yondaime Hokage; or so he'd been told.

"Get back here Naruto!" shouted one of the Chunins who were chasing after Naruto in blind rage.

"This is the day we make you pay for your crimes!" yelled another Chunin, who like many others, had been a victim to one of Naruto's infamous pranks a while back.

"Well you'll just have to catch me first then, won't you," Naruto shouted back, smirking underneath his ninja mask.

As they rounded a corner, they continued down the alleyway, thinking Naruto had already moved through and then jumped to the roofs, so they continued searching for him.

"I think he came down here," suggested one of the Jounin, who was really hoping to finally catch the troublemaker.

"Yeah, he can't be too far ahead. Let's keep moving," ordered an ANBU with a bear mask.

"Right!" they all chanted in unison, before dashing through and continuing on their hunt.

Little did they know, that once they left the alleyway, a camo-sheet was lowered, revealing a laughing Naruto who was blended in with the fence behind him.

"Suckers! You'll never catch Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha; not in this lifetime at least!" exclaimed a grinning Naruto, who was happy with how well his new camo-sheet had worked in concealing him from his pursuers. "Now, to get to Ichiraku's Ramen for some breakfast and-..."

"Not so fast Naruto. You're coming with me," said a new voice from behind Naruto, prompting Naruto to flinch at unfortunately being caught.

When Naruto turned around to see who it was, his one eye widened before he started chuckling to himself and placing his left hand behind his head in embarrassment. "Hehe, I found you Iruka-sensei."

"I found you, baka!" shouted Iruka, who was a 22 year old Chunin and teaching instructor at the Academy - Naruto's teacher to be exact. He was a man of average height and build, who had brown hair which he kept in a ponytail. One of his more defining characteristics was the horizontal scar he had across the bridge of his nose.

Deciding to tease his student who he saw as a little brother a bit, he smirked and began speaking. "Now, let's go, we're heading back to the Academy, it's about to start in 30 mins, and you don't want to be late for your graduation exam and fail to become a ninja, do you Naruto?"

Seeing the reaction in his young blond haired student's face, he smirked at his small victory at getting back at his student for some of the pranks that had been pulled on him.

"Of course not!" exclaimed Naruto, and seeing how his sensei was still standing still, decided to continue. "Well what are we waiting for, let's go then," said Naruto, as he fell into step with his favourite sensei, who was also like an older brother figure to him after what happened to his family 4 years ago. "And you don't need to worry about the paint on the Hokage monument Iruka-sensei," continued Naruto, "the paint is water based, and it's going to rain later tonight, so it'll all be washed off by morning."

"You're still going to have to be punished for your actions though, you know. You can't just paint our village's most prestigious monument and think you're going to get off scot-free," said Iruka, wearing a smirk of satisfaction at getting an opportunity to get back at his student once again for the numerous pranks he'd pulled on him in the past few months.

"It's alright Iruka-sensei; at least I was able to get in some training this morning to practice my stealth and evasive skills."

"You mean that's why you do all these pranks?" asked a slightly wide eyed Iruka, finally understanding why Naruto did what he did. "So that you can train your evasiveness and stealth?"

Seeing Naruto nod, Iruka couldn't help but feel somewhat impressed with how his student had used all the shinobi of this village into helping him with his training, despite the way he went about accomplishing it.

"Yeah, well, because nobody ever wants to help me train for reasons I cannot understand, and the fact that you're the first Academy teacher to actually teach me something since the, uh, **_incident_**, I had to find a different way to train, y'know. And what better way than to indirectly make those same shinobi be the ones to help me with my training," he finished, wearing a sad smile that was being covered by his mask, although his one visible eye gave away what he was feeling. The emotions that were conveyed through that lone azure coloured eye was how people would read his emotions.

Seeing his student's sad smile and hearing his explanation, Iruka couldn't help but frown a bit at the shinobi of this village, before smiling and placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder as an idea came to mind. "I must say Naruto, that's really quite clever, I'm really impressed."

"Ah, stop it Iruka-sensei, you're making me blush," said Naruto, who was holding his hand behind his head and blushing, although his mask covered it up nicely, only revealing a slight red tinge appearing out from the top of his mask.

"No, I really mean it, and because of your ingenuity, I want to make you a proposition," stated Iruka, who now had his student's full attention. "If you pass the exam today, I'll take you out to Ichiraku's for supper tonight, and I'll also teach you a new jutsu, a jutsu which I developed."

Seeing his students face light up, a brightness which even his mask couldn't hide, he knew that he had succeeded in getting Naruto motivated for today's exam and lifting his spirits somewhat considerably.

"You created a jutsu Iruka-sensei?! That's awesome, and you want to teach it to me?" asked a bewildered Naruto, who after seeing his teacher nod, felt a warmth in his stomach that he hadn't felt for a while. "I won't let you down Iruka-sensei, I give you my word. And I never go back on my word, because that's my nindo, my ninja way, dattebayo," stated Naruto, with his fist firmly on his chest.

Iruka was one of Naruto's most precious people and one of the first people that didn't treat him with unadulterated disgust and hatred. He really liked Iruka, and he would do everything in his power to make Iruka proud of him.

"I know you won't Naruto," replied Iruka with a warm smile, 'I know you'll make me proud,' he had as an afterthought.

Once they arrived at the Academy, they parted ways with a wave, Naruto heading over to his class, while Iruka making his way to the Instructors lounge.

As Naruto entered the class, he made his way to his usual spot, which was located in back right of the class, where he was seated in between Shikamaru Nara who was on his right, his resident sleeping buddy for the past few years, and one of Naruto's few friends. On his left was Sasuke, who had yet to arrive to class, who was his non-blood related brother and his best friend as well.

As Naruto took his seat, he took his sleeping position like his friend in the seat next to him had already opted to take, and began to think about what the exam today could entail.

He had failed the written test, because he never had a teacher that would try to help him. After the Uchiha Clan Massacre, the teachers were free to disregard Naruto once more due to the absence of Fugaku. Sasuke had tried to help Naruto out, and it worked up to a point, but once the teachers figured out what he was doing, they began giving him different tests than the rest of his class, so he had told Sasuke that he didn't need the help anymore. He would rather fail by himself than bring his brother down with him. He didn't want to burden others with his problems.

But, even though he failed the written part, his taijutsu and shuriken throwing were enough to allow him to take the final test of the graduation exam, which was the ninjutsu portion. He could pull off pretty much all the academy grade ninjutsu, except for the **Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)** because of his abnormally large chakra reserves which were larger than most Jounin at this point.

He was fairly confident in his abilities to pass this exam, and he really wanted to pass as well, having worked exceptionally hard on everything he was able to so that he could become a ninja.

Whatever was the test though, he felt he could handle it, as he was top of the class in ninjutsu, even better than his brother when it came to this section of work. His taijutsu was top of the class coming second only to his brother Sasuke. His shuriken throwing was top of the class along with his brother Sasuke as well, but his theory work was the worst of the entire class, where he lived up to his brother's nickname for him - 'dobe'.

Sensing the presence of someone next to him, Shikamaru lifted his head ever so slightly, and opened his left eye to check who was next to him, but was greeted with a mop of blond hair.

"What's up Naruto, you ready for the exam today?" muttered Shikamaru through his arms that he was lying on.

"You bet Shika, although I didn't do too well with the theory side of things, I managed to make up for it with my taijutsu and shuriken throwing, so becoming a ninja now should be a piece of cake. What about you? I know this whole procedure is 'troublesome', but you're a pretty good ninja, and you're the smartest guy I know, so this should be no sweat for you, right?"

"This whole procedure really is troublesome; you hit the nail on the head with that one. If it were up to me, I'd just be lying on the grass outside and staring up at the clouds all day," mumbled Shikamaru, who was envious of those damnable clouds with their carefree lives and soft looking compositions. "But seeing as how my troublesome mother is pressing the issue of me becoming a ninja, I really don't have a choice, but like you said, this should be no sweat."

"That's what I like to hear Shika," replied Naruto with a smile under his mask. "Now, I think I'm going to get some shut-eye before Iruka-sensei gets back."

"Now that," began Shikamaru with a smile to his friend, while lowering himself onto his arms again, "sounds like a plan."

Smiling and letting loose a small chuckle, Naruto just silently dosed off and had a quick 15 minute cat nap, waiting for his sensei to arrive.

Once Sasuke arrived, he couldn't help but smirk at his younger brother's antics, seeing him and his friend lying face down on the desk, just like every other day.

When he got to his desk, he could've sworn he heard his brother mumbling something along the lines of, 'Miso ramen with pork, extra pork on the sides'. He snickered a little bit before relaxing in his seat.

The three boys in the back right row were enjoying the peace and quiet, but their peace was not meant to be, as not even 10 seconds later, you could hear the sounds of running footsteps, followed by 2 girls running into the class.

The first girl who entered had long pink hair held up with a red bow, with large green eyes and fair skin that was named Sakura Haruno. She wore a red qipao dress with white circular designs and tight green shorts underneath.

The second girl who entered into the classroom was Ino Yamanaka who had long, platinum blonde hair with bangs covering the right side of her face. She had blue eyes and was a pretty fair skinned girl. She wore a purple vest-like blouse with a raised collar, a purple apron that was cut off on the sides and bandages on her stomach and legs.

It seemed like they were competing in yet another competition in their rivalry to win Sasuke's affections.

"HA! Take that Ino-Pig ... I beat you!" shouted Sakura between pants of exhaustion.

"Whatever forehead girl ... you got lucky ... that's all I'm gonna say ..." retorted Ino through rasped breathing, while clutching at her knees for support.

Turning left, Ino made her way over to her desk, which was just in front of the back right desk. Looking up, she noticed the boy that she was infatuated with was looking back at her with his onyx coloured eyes. "Good morning Sasuke-kun! Did you miss your Ino-chan?"

Groaning in discomfort, Sasuke just dropped his head onto his arms and followed suit with the 3 guys next to him, attempting to ignore the pair of females descending upon him. "Hn," was his only answer to the blond in front of him.

"Leave Sasuke-kun alone Ino-Pig! You're clearly annoying him," shouted a white eyed Sakura, before taking on a sweet look and glancing up at Sasuke, a slight blush on her face, "Isn't that right Sasuke-kun?"

Lifting up his head, Naruto eyed them with his eyes before giving them an eye smile and getting their attention. "Hey Sakura, Ino, Sasuke's a bit tired so I think he'd like it if you guys could just let him get a bit of rest before the exam starts."

Silently thanking his brother, Sasuke smirked into his arms and prayed to Kami that they listened to Naruto.

"What would you know Naruto? You're just the dead last of the class," retorted Sakura, glaring at the blonde haired student sitting next to Sasuke.

"Well, firstly, I am his best friend, so I can read him better than you guys can." Seeing them still looking at him he continued, smirking under his mask. "And secondly, he's my brother, so I know when he needs rest and when he needs to be left alone for a while."

It was known among their entire class that Naruto and Sasuke were best friends, but when in class, they never used their surnames, and all the previous teachers had called him demon child, so nobody actually knew that Naruto and Sasuke were brothers. Because they certainly didn't look alike, and their personalities were quite different as well, Sasuke being more reserved, quite and indifferent, while Naruto was lively, bubbly and quite happy-go-lucky.

Hearing this, Sakura gaped at him wide eyed for a full minute before an even greater scowl made its way onto her face, while at the same time pointing a dejected finger at him. "Stop lying Naruto-baka! You're so desperate to be as good as Sasuke-kun that you're pretending to be his brother? That's pathetic," she finished, silently commending herself on that witty comeback.

"It's not pathetic," spat Sasuke, who was now glaring down at Sakura, making her back away a couple steps, "because he really is my brother, and the only family I have left, so if you insult him again ..." He let the threat hang in the air, resuming his position in his seat, sending a nod to his brother next to him.

Naruto just nodded in return, while turning back to the girls. "Don't worry about the mix up, it's a common misconception because we don't look alike, but he is my brother."

'Naruto is Sasuke's brother,' thought a bewildered Ino, who also had no idea about this. 'Who would have thought ...' She let a smile come to her face before she faced them again. "Sorry about disturbing you guys, we'll leave now."

Smiling down at her thankfully, Naruto gave her an eye smile, which she nodded her head to and got to her seat.

It was at that moment that Iruka entered the class and quietened everyone down before stating the procedures of the final exam. "We will call your names one by one, and when your name is called, please proceed to the classroom next to this one, where Mizuki-sensei and I will be waiting to test you." Seeing that he still had their attention, he continued. "Once you enter the classroom, we will give you the name of the jutsu to perform and if you are able to perform it perfectly, then you will pass and receive your very own forehead protector."

Moving over to the door, he called up the first person and they made their way out the class and into the room next door.

After an hour of waiting, Naruto was finally the last person in the class, and he was waiting intently for his name to be called out. The intercom cackled to life with a bit of static, before relaying the message. **_"Can Naruto please make his way to the next door classroom for his graduation test; thank you."_**

Finally having his name called out, he jumped all the way down to the door and went over to the classroom next door. Once he got inside, he found Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei sitting at a desk in the centre of the classroom, with a row of left over forehead protectors lining the table. 'There must be quite a few people who failed it seems,' Naruto thought to himself, looking back up at Iruka and Mizuki.

"Iruka-sensei, Mizuki-sensei, what jutsu would you guys like me to perform for you guys? The **Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu)**, the **Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu)**, maybe the ..."

He was interrupted by Iruka who had his hand raised. "We would like for you to perform the **Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)** please Naruto."

Naruto's entire face went ghost white for several seconds before he shook himself of his stupor and looked at his sensei incredulously. "Are you serious Iruka-sensei?! You know probably the best why I'm not able to perform that jutsu, isn't there any other jutsu I could perform?" Naruto asked, half pleaded.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but the jutsu's have been picked already, so you have no choice but to perform the jutsu, and if you can't, then you fail."

Resigning himself to his fate of failure, he gave his sensei a sad nod, before he formed the Ram, Snake and Tiger hand seals and called out his jutsu. **"Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)."** Looking to his right, Naruto grimaced when he saw the state of the bunshin he had created. It looked absolutely pitiful. Gathering up the last of his courage, he looked back up to Iruka who had a firm look on his face.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but because you failed to create at least three decent bunshins, you fail the graduation exam."

"Iruka, are you sure there's no way we can pass him, I mean he is quite a competent ninja in taijutsu and shuriken throwing, and this exam is just a formality," spoke Mizuki for the first time.

Naruto felt a little bit of hope build up inside of him, silently thanking his sensei for trying to make this work for him.

Iruka looked down with his eyes closed, shaking his head slightly. "I'm sorry Mizuki-sensei, but Naruto failed to perform the jutsu he was asked to complete, and there is no way around it. We can't make exceptions for anyone."

Turning around with his head lowered, Naruto walked to the door and opened it, but stopped just before stepping through. "I'm sorry Iruka-sensei, I just ... I really didn't want to disappoint you, so I ... I'm really sorry."

Iruka just looked on towards his student with sad eyes, lowering his head slightly at the outcome of this exam, while Mizuki looked on with a thoughtful expression, his mind cooking up a plan.

'He's in a pretty emotional state, and would probably do anything to pass this exam so he won't disappoint Iruka. This is perfect,' Mizuki thought. "Excuse me for a moment Iruka; I'm just heading over to the bathroom for a minute, so feel free to start finalising the list of graduates without me."

With that said, Mizuki left the class in search of Naruto, finding him sitting outside the back of the Academy on one of the training stumps with his head lowered, seemingly staring into nothing. Walking up to him, Mizuki schooled a sympathetic look on his face, and placed a supportive hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"I'm sorry about the exam Naruto. Iruka-sensei is tough, but he's not against you," began Mizuki.

"Then why, why is he always so hard on me, and not anyone else!" exclaimed Naruto, somewhat peeved with Iruka for not just passing him, even though he was still a bit sad for disappointing the Chunin.

"It's because he wants you to be strong with all his heart, but that will never happen if he goes easy on you." Looking up at the sky, he began speaking again, albeit a bit softer and more sincere. "He's like you, you know, no parents, both of them died when he was fairly young ..."

"I just ... I really wanted to graduate this time, y'know," said Naruto, looking up at the sky along with his sensei.

"Well then, I guess I should let you in on the secret test that's made specifically for people in your predicament," he baited, smirking at the look on Naruto's face, knowing that he had him, hook, line and sinker.

"A secret test? Well, what is it, what must I do?" Naruto half yelled, hoping upon hopes that he could have just found a way to graduate.

"Well, the secret test entails ..."

**(Several hour later – Outside Konoha's walls)**

'Well that was easy enough,' thought Naruto while dropping to the ground with the scroll in front of him. 'I'm definitely going to graduate this time, and I'll make Iruka-sensei proud of me, dattebayo! But first, now that I have some time to spare, I might as well try and learn one of the jutsu out of this scroll like Mizuki-sensei said.'

Opening the scroll, Naruto started from the top of the scroll, deciding the top was as best a place to start as anywhere else.

**"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) – B-Rank Supplementary Ninjutsu/Clone Jutsu**

**WARNING! THIS IS A JOUNIN-LEVEL TECHNIQUE, AND IF USED BY SOMEONE WHO'S CHAKRA RESERVES ARE NOT SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH, USE OF THIS JUTSU COULD RESULT IN DEATH**

_This technique creates clones of the user, however these clones are corporeal instead of illusions like the basic _**Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)**_. The user's chakra is evenly distributed between each clone. The clones are capable of performing their own techniques, and can bleed, but will be dispelled if they take a hit with enough force behind it. _

_The most distinguishable trait of a Kage Bunshin is that the experience of the clone is returned back to the user once it dispels, and is therefore a very effective tool for spying or reconnaissance missions. Any chakra that is still left in a clone when it dispels will be returned to the user. Any damage done to the clone will not be transferred to the user._

_The hand seals are the clone seal, which is accomplished by crossing your right index and middle fingers over your left index and middle fingers in a cross seal._

_This technique was developed by the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju._

_Derived jutsu include the:_

**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)** _is an A-Rank offensive jutsu, which, when applied to a weapon, will increase the number from one to any number depending on how much chakra is added into the technique. Hand seals are Ram, Rat, Bird, Boar and Tiger._

**Bunshin Daibakuha (Shadow Clone Explosion) **_is an A-Rank offensive ninjutsu, whichlooks like a normal shadow clone, but the clone can be detonated at any time by the user._

**Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu)** _is an A-Rank supplementary kinjutsu, which is just a larger version of the shadow clone jutsu, creating anywhere from one hundred clones to anything greater. It is considered a kinjutsu because each clone is given an equal portion of chakra from the user, potentially draining the user of all their chakra and killing them."_

'This is perfect!' thought Naruto, after reading the first jutsu. 'This will compensate for the fact that I can't use the basic Bunshin, as these Kage Bunshin use more chakra, allowing me to use it properly. It also has some kick-ass jutsu derived from it, which I will be able to use once I learn the Kage Bunshin first, and I will finally be able to read all the scrolls in the Uchiha vault, maybe even use this jutsu to help me train.' Standing up and getting all giddy over the prospect of this new jutsu, Naruto proceeded to get to work on learning how to perform it.

About 2 hours later, a scruffed up looking Naruto was sitting in the middle of the clearing he was told to wait at, catching his breath after a strenuous training session on learning to perfect this new jutsu.

"Naruto, what do you think you're doing?" Iruka asked, pointing accusingly at his blond haired student while at the same time trying to catch his breath from running all over Konoha looking for him. "Do you know what that scroll is?" asked Iruka, this time voice softening a bit.

The scroll Naruto had stolen was the Scroll of Seals, which contained many secrets and forbidden techniques within, all known only to Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**. This was why most of the shinobi of the village were after Naruto. They also now had a perfect opportunity to kill the 'demon brat' on sight so that they could retrieve their village's scroll, which is why Iruka moved faster than ever before to find Naruto first.

Naruto looked up at his sensei with his hand behind his head, giving a sheepish grin. "Hehe, you found me Iruka-sensei. That was fast, really fast. I only had time to learn one jutsu from the scroll."

Iruka eyed the boy in front of him and noticed that he was a bit scruffy, leading him to believe that Naruto had indeed been training this entire time. Mulling over what he had just heard, he looked back at Naruto with an incredulous expression. "You learned one of those jutsu in the scroll?!"

"Yeah, that's how this whole thing works, right? I learn a jutsu from the scroll and show it to you, and then you let me graduate?" seeing the confused look on his face, he elaborated further. "Mizuki-sensei said it was a secret test for people who were unable to pass the graduation exam first time, so if I can do this, then you'll let me graduate."

'Mizuki ... set this whole thing up ...' before he could ponder on what he had just discovered, he heard the tell-tale sound of kunai whistling through the air in their direction, and quickly pushed Naruto out of the way. "Get down Naruto!"

The kunai hit Iruka flush in the left leg, pinning him softly to the tree behind him. Naruto looked up at his sensei, and then to where the kunai came from to see Mizuki land on a branch up in the tree. "Mizuki ... sensei ... what's going on?" asked a confused Naruto, completely at a loss for words.

"Naruto, don't let Mizuki get the scroll! It contains forbidden secrets that could be harmful to the village if it fell into the wrong hands." Looking back up at Mizuki, he gave him a death glare with a small amount of killing intent flowing through it. "So that's the way it is, hey Mizuki?" spat Iruka, slowly removing the imbedded kunai.

"Naruto, Iruka's just lying to you because he doesn't want you to have the scroll. Give me the scroll so I can keep it safe Naruto," shouted Mizuki from his perch, giving Naruto a fake smile while holding out his arm.

"Don't listen to him Naruto, he's lying. He's only trying to get the scroll for his own power! He tricked you into stealing it for him!" cried Iruka, looking on with a scowl adorning his visage.

Naruto was by this point looking back and forth between his two sensei's, and he had this feeling that somehow Mizuki was lying, but he was still hesitant, as he was still regaining his breath from training.

"Hahaha, oh, I'll tell you who's really lying. They've been lying to you since the day you were born Naruto. Have you ever wondered why everyone in the village has just seemingly hated you for no apparent reason? Everyone knows but you."

Figuring out where his former friend and assistant sensei was going with this conversation, he quickly interjected. "No Mizuki, you can't, it's forbidden."

'A forbidden secret that everyone knows ... but me?' Looking up at Mizuki, his one visible eye was wide, and he couldn't bring himself to speak or move. 'So there **_has_** always been a reason why everyone hates me ...'

Seeing the inner turmoil on the young blonde's face, he continued. "There was a decree made 12 years ago when the Kyuubi attacked the village. The decree was, that the Kyuubi no Kitsune is now inside you, and it has taken over your body! You are the Kyuubi no Kitsune!"

Naruto's whole world froze. 'I'm ... I'm the Kyuubi ... no Kitsune?' He couldn't move. His whole body was becoming unresponsive. He dropped to his knees, and just stared at the ground, seemingly devoid of life.

Seeing Naruto drop to his knees brought a triumphant smirk to Mizuki's face. Now, to deliver the final blow. He unstrapped a large shuriken off his back and began to spin it around his fingers, before launching it in Naruto's direction. "Now, DIE Naruto!"

"Naruto! Get out of the way!" Iruka shouted at him, but Naruto was unresponsive and was going to be hit with the shuriken if he didn't move. Thinking fast, Iruka got onto his feet and pumped as much chakra to his legs as he could, and ran straight at Naruto. Just as the oversized shuriken was about to hit, he made a leap for Naruto and ...

**_*SQUELCH*_**

Naruto was woken from his stupor by the blood droplets that hit his face. Looking up, he noticed Iruka crouching over him with the oversized shuriken in his back, tears in his eyes as he was looking down at him. "Why ... why Iruka-sensei ... I'm the Kyuubi no Kitsune, I killed your parents, why would you save me?" asked Naruto, who was shakily staring up at his sensei, bewildered.

"No, Naruto, you are not the Kyuubi. You are no more the Kyuubi that is sealed away inside you than a scroll is the kunai that's sealed inside it. You are not the Kyuubi, Naruto ... you are Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, a citizen and shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**."

Looking up at his sensei, he felt a lump building up in the back of his throat and he couldn't help the few tears that began to fall from his one visible eye. His sensei had known all the time that he had the Kyuubi sealed away inside of him, and yet, he still treated him like a regular person. He treated him as ... Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha. A small smile formed on Naruto's face before he wiped his eyes and grabbed his teacher into a hug, silently thanking him for not hating him.

Seeing what was going on, Mizuki couldn't help but laugh, and laugh hard he did. "Why are you helping that demon Iruka? He killed your parents ... but, no matter. I was planning on killing Naruto first, and then coming back for you later, but I guess I can make an exception for killing you first." Unhooking the last oversized shuriken off his back, he began spinning it around his fingers like before and then launching it at Iruka with ferocious speed.

Seeing the incoming projectile, Iruka closed his eyes and steeled himself for what was about to come, for his whole world to become dark and end at that moment ... but it never did. Opening up his one eye slowly, he looked up to see Naruto's back standing up in front of him with the oversized shuriken in his hand still spinning, before he flung it onto the ground. He also noticed Mizuki standing on the other side of the clearing with a disbelieving look on his face.

"Don't worry Iruka-sensei ..." said Naruto while slowly turning his head around to look back at Iruka. But when Iruka looked up at Naruto, he noticed that Naruto's headband was up, allowing his left eye to be seen. "I'll handle Mizuki-sensei. I won't let him hurt you."

Iruka just stared at Naruto wide eyed – or more specifically, he stared at his left Sharingan eye that had three tomoe all spinning in his eye angrily. 'He has the Sharingan ...' thought a disbelieving Iruka. His student shot him a foxy grin, before turning forward to face Mizuki once more.

Looking forward at Mizuki, Naruto lowered his head so that his eyes were covered by the shadow of his blond bangs hanging over his now raised headband, his left Sharingan eye glowing under the shadow, and his voice became ragged and filled with rage. "If you ever try and lay a finger on my sensei again," he began, looking up at the now stock still Mizuki, "I'll KILL YOU!" With that said, he formed the cross seal and shouted out his jutsu.

**"Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu)"** The entire clearing was filled with smoke, and once it dissipated, it left a wide eyed Iruka and a just as shocked Mizuki, being surrounded by hundreds of Naruto's from all sides, all staring at Mizuki with their Sharingan eyes spinning furiously.

'Those aren't just illusions,' thought a wide eyed Iruka, 'those are all solid clones! He's mastered an incredibly advanced technique! Incredible ...'

"So," began one of the Naruto clones, "if you won't come after me ..."

"... then we'll just come after you!" finished another one of his clones.

Mizuki just stared into the eyes of all the clones, one cerulean blue eye and one blood-red Sharingan eye. All of them had those eyes. 'Those eyes ... everywhere ... nowhere to hide ...' thought Mizuki, before seeing one Naruto moved forward, stopping his train of thought.

With a flick of his wrist and a sadistic glint in his eyes, Naruto spoke. "Tear him limb from limb."

All the Naruto clones descended upon Mizuki at once, beating him to a bloody pulp. His blood curdling screams could be heard all throughout Konoha. Upon finishing up Mizuki, the real Naruto dispelled his clones and then tied up a now badly bruised, beaten and unconscious Mizuki.

Turning back around to face Iruka-sensei, he had the decency to look sheepish and began rubbing the back of his head with his hand. "I guess I went kind of overboard, hey Iruka-sensei, hehe. By the way Iruka-sensei, are you alright?" He quickly dashed over to his sensei and began looking him over.

'He's amazing ... reminds me of another cyclopean ninja I know. I'm starting to believe that maybe one day he could actually become Hokage.' Looking back up at his student and noticing that he was looking down at him with his one blue eye and other red eye, he lifted himself up and propped his back against the tree. "Close your eyes for a second Naruto, there's something I want to give you."

Doing as his sensei asked of him, he closed his eyes, and felt his sensei's hands around his head. Flinching ever so slightly, his sensei asked him to trust him, to which he just nodded. He felt the restraining weight of his black headband being removed, and then the same restraining weight being retied around his forehead, except this new weight felt slightly heavier. "Come on Iruka-sensei, what's this surprise?"

"Okay, you can open your eyes now Naruto." Once Naruto opened his eyes, he saw Iruka standing right in front of him, sans forehead protector though. Curiosity getting the better of him, he was about to speak when Iruka spoke first.

"Congratulations Naruto, you graduate from the Academy." With a fond smile, he ruffled his student's hair before smiling at him again.

Hearing what his sensei had just told him, and the fact that his sensei's forehead protector was gone, he looked straight up to see that he now had a blue headband on his head which signified that he had become a genin. Feeling the prickling of tears at the back of both his eyes, he let a couple tears fall before he enveloped Iruka into a bone-wrenching hug, eliciting a painful groan from the chunin. "Hehe, sorry Iruka-sensei, I just ... thank you."

Seeing the gratitude on his students face, he smiled again and suggested that they both head back to the Hokage Tower to inform the Hokage of what happened tonight and to then get some medical attention for Iruka.

Nodding his head, he quickly grabbed the Scroll of Seals and allowed Iruka to hang off his shoulder while they slowly began tree hopping back to Konoha.

"Naruto ... if you don't mind me asking ... where did you get a Sharingan eye from ... and how long have you had it?"

Closing his eyes for a second, he thought about what to say to Iruka, but considering that the man next to him was one of his closest and most precious people, he felt that he could tell him everything. "This eye was given to me the night of the Uchiha Massacre by one of my best and dearest friends, Shisui Uchiha." Seeing Iruka's eyes widen, he could assume that he knew of him. "I won't go into too much detail, as I don't like to think back to those events, but I lost my eye that day, and Shisui apparently knew he was going to die, so he ... he gave me his eye before he passed on." He was struggling to hold back the sadness in his eyes, and his fists unclenched and clenched a few times before he calmed himself and recovered his left eye with his new forehead protector.

He always thought back to that night and wandered what had happened to his friend, because his body was not found with the rest of the Uchihas after the night of the massacre. He liked to think that his friend had gotten out somehow, and was now roaming around the elemental nations, but that thought was just too farfetched to be even remotely possible, so he just resigned himself to Shisui's most likely cause for disappearance.

"I'm sorry Naruto ... I didn't mean to bring up bad memories for you."

"It's okay Iruka-sensei, sometimes it helps a little to talk about it, but I'd prefer not to think or dwell too much on the past. I was told once that dwelling on one's past dulls one's future, and so I try not to think about it too much, as no good comes from it."

Hearing his student's words, he couldn't help but be a little awed at him, for he was speaking with wisdom well beyond his years. But after he considered it a bit longer, he realised that with everything that happened in Naruto's life, he would've had to have grown up rather fast to be able to cope with life and keep some measure of sanity, and knowing this saddened the chunin greatly, before he remembered something which brought a small smile to his face. "Hey, don't forget Naruto, you graduated from the Academy now, so tomorrow morning how about I take you out for ramen, and while we're there, I will be able to teach you the jutsu I created."

"That sounds like a great idea Iruka-sensei." Naruto smiled brightly and looked back at his sensei. "Have I ever told you that you're my favourite sensei?" stated Naruto with a foxy grin.

Hearing this, Iruka just chuckled and looked ahead once again. "Yes Naruto, you have. And I don't believe it for a second, so stop trying to butter me up to get a few extra bowls of ramen tomorrow, I'm not made of money you know." After saying this, he just laughed harder and noticed that his student had joined in with him. He clutched at his side though as laughing with his injury seemed to be aggravating the wound.

Before long they reached the Hokage Tower and made their way to the Hokage's Office. Knocking on the door they heard an elderly voice call for them to come in, before a grinning Naruto and fairly bloodied-and-bruised Iruka trudged in through the door.

"Ah, Iruka-kun, Naruto-kun, I've been expecting you two." Seeing their confused faces, he gestured for them to have a seat in the two chairs in front of his desk. "There is no need to explain yourself, Naruto-kun; I watched the entire thing transpire on my Crystal Ball, so I know exactly what happened with Mizuki. I have already sent out an ANBU team to go take him into custody to be interrogated by Ibiki."

Opting to continue, he looked at Naruto with a firm gaze. "Although you stole the Scroll of Seals under the impression that it would allow you to graduate, it does not excuse the fact that you did indeed steal it." Seeing Naruto lowering his head in shame, he sighed and took a puff from his pipe. "Nevertheless, you protected the Scroll of Seals from Mizuki's clutches, you protected Iruka from Mizuki's wrath and you have shown skill beyond your years for a 12 year old, and so I agree with Iruka-kun's decision to allow you to graduate from the Academy. Well done Naruto-kun. You demonstrated tonight that the Will of Fire truly burns bright within you."

Smiling at his surrogate grandson, he couldn't be more proud of the way Naruto had handled the situation with Mizuki. Although, after a moment, his expression became grim once more before he spoke to Naruto again. "What Mizuki said though I'm afraid is true Naruto-kun – the Kyuubi is sealed inside you, and it is the reason why so many look at you with resentment. I will not ask you not to hate them Naruto, as I can understand how you must be feeling towards the villagers for the way they treated you, but they just fear what they don't understand, so please don't hold it against them."

Seeing him nod, he schooled his expression once more and decided he was going to finish up with this discussion so that they could both leave. "The fact that the Kyuubi is sealed inside you Naruto is an S-Class secret, and people in the village are forbidden about speaking of it. The older generation are the only ones who know of this secret, and so the elder's hatred towards you simply spread to their children. The children have no idea of this secret though, and the only way for them to find out is if you tell them, as you are the only one who is allowed to freely speak about this."

"I ... understand Ojiisan, it's just a ... a lot to take in, that's all." Naruto's words were soft, bordering on being a whisper.

"I understand Naruto-kun." He smiled at the boy sitting in front of him again and readied himself to let forth the first bit of good news. "By the way Naruto-kun, your Genin orientation and team selection is in two days' time, and tomorrow is your ID photo day, so don't forget. Now, there is nothing left for me to tell you. You may both go home and rest, although Iruka, I suggest you go see a medic first," the Sandaime said while chuckling lightly at the same time.

"Of course Hokage-sama." Iruka bowed to the old Hokage before getting up and making his way over to the door.

"Well, I'll see you later Ojiisan, I need to get home and have a nice long sleep," said Naruto, fighting back the yawn of all yawns to try save face in front of the Hokage.

Iruka scowled, and eyed his blond haired student. "You cannot refer to the Hokage in such a disrespectful manner Naruto!"

"I assure you Iruka-kun, it's quite alright, and I really don't mind it at all. In fact, it would sort of be disrespectful for Naruto-kun not to call me that."After saying this, the Sandaime snickered at seeing Iruka's twitching eyebrow, before he righted himself and nodded furiously at the Hokage.

"Also Naruto-kun," began the Hokage, a serious look on his face getting the blond to focus completely on his Ojiisan, "I would like you to promise me never to teach that jutsu you learned to anyone else, as it is a forbidden jutsu for a reason and would kill any other shinobi who unfortunately don't have your abnormally large chakra reserves."

With the pleasantries over, Naruto nodded furiously and waved over his shoulder while exiting out the door, leaving his 'Ojiisan' in his office. 'You're on the path to becoming a fine shinobi Naruto-kun, as well as a fine young man. There's no doubt in my mind that your real parents as well as your adopted one's would be extremely proud of the man you are becoming.'

Outside the Hokage's Office, Iruka told Naruto what time he would be meeting him for breakfast tomorrow morning, before he too departed and decided he needed to go get a check up at the hospital.

Finally thankful that the day was over, Naruto headed on home to get some well deserved rest. Once he arrived home, he found that Sasuke was still awake, waiting up for him most likely. Rubbing the back of his head with his hand, he chuckled before looking down at the seated Sasuke. "What's up Sasuke? What are you still doing up?" Naruto of course knew the answer already, but it was always fun to rile his brother up every now and again.

Sasuke's eye began to twitch before he narrowed his eyes and glared at his younger brother. "Where have you been? It's almost midnight already, and I was told by Mizuki-sensei that you were out with Iruka-sensei. But by the looks of your clothes I'm venturing a guess that that didn't happen."

Naruto grinned. "Were you worried for your little brother, Teme?" Seeing Sasuke's eyes widen ever so slightly was all the indication he needed to confirm his question. "Well, you shouldn't have been, because I kicked ass and saved myself and Iruka-sensei."

Seeing his confused look, Naruto sat down and explained what happened with Mizuki and how he had defeated him and saved himself and Iruka-sensei from being killed by Mizuki. Once the explanation was over, Sasuke just smirked before he got up off the recliner and headed in the direction of his bedroom at the end of the hall, with Naruto hot on his heels heading for his own bedroom at the beginning of the hall. Watching his brother continue on, he bade him goodnight and prepared himself for his own slumber.

Looking up at the ceiling, Naruto couldn't hide the smile that formed on his mouth at the outcome of the events. He had become a Genin, and he was one step closer to becoming Hokage. He frowned in thought though for one last moment before he went to bed, deciding that he would tell Sasuke about his 'tenant' the next day. He was his brother after all, the closest person to him and his most precious person. He owed him that much, to trust his brother to not hate him and accept him as what he was ... his brother.

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**AN: So, that's chapter 2 up, will get started on the next chapter as soon as possible, hope you guys are enjoying, and if you are let me know. It would be great to know if I'm doing something right so that I can continue to do it, hehe. Thanks for reading, until next time ...**

**Justin**


	3. Intermission

**AN: Hey guys, another chapter I wrote up quickly, albeit this one's a bit shorter, more of a sort of filler chapter. I will be starting University soon, so I won't be pumping out chapters as quickly as I am now, but whenever I've got some free time from studying I'll be writing, because, let's face it, my name's Justin, and Im' a FanFic-aholic. Admitting you have an adiction is the first step I've heard. Anyways, let me know what you guys think, give me some feedback so I can try and improve on the story if you guys deem it necessary. I can't improve on the story if I don't know what to imptove on from your point's of view.  
**

**Anyways, here's the next chapter, so ...**

**Disclaimer:** **I do not nor ever will own Naruto ... at least I think I won't. Naruto and the aspects of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 3: Intermission**

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Naruto could barely contain his excitement. He had graduated. He had gotten his forehead protector. He had become a fully fledged ninja and was on his way to becoming Hokage, one step closer now thanks to his graduation. So, yes, it sufficed to say that Naruto was beside himself at this particular point in time.

He glanced left to his clock on his bedside table to see that it was only 6:30 in the morning. He only had to meet Iruka for breakfast at 10:30, and his ID photo was only going to be taken at 12:00, so he had a lot of time in the morning for he had no idea what.

He jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom, having a quick 2 minute shower to fully wake himself up from his sleep; not that he needed to though, he was as awake as he was going to get. The shower he took was more out of daily routine than anything else.

Getting dressed while staring at himself in the mirror, he thought on what he had been told yesterday by Mizuki.

**_FLASHBACK_**

**_"_****_Hahaha, oh, I'll tell you who's really lying. They've been lying to you since the day you were born Naruto. Have you ever wondered why everyone in the village has just seemingly hated you for no apparent reason? Everyone knows but you."_**

**_Figuring out where his former friend and assistant sensei was going with this conversation, he quickly interjected. "No Mizuki, you can't, it's forbidden."_**

**_'_****_A forbidden secret that everyone knows ... but me?' Looking up at Mizuki, his one visible eye was wide, and he couldn't bring himself to speak or move. 'So there has always been a reason why everyone hates me ...'_**

**_Seeing the inner turmoil on the young blonde's face, he continued. "There was a decree made 12 years ago when the Kyuubi attacked the village. The decree was, that the Kyuubi no Kitsune is now inside you, and it has taken over your body! You are the Kyuubi no Kitsune."_**

**_FLASHBACK END_**

He subconsciously ran his hand over his stomach a few times, looking at his bare upper body. 'I'll tell Sasuke later when I get back, but right now, I need breakfast, and a nice run around the village wouldn't hurt either.'

Nodding to his mirrored self at the plan for the morning, he proceeded to put on his clothes and strap on his ninja pouch, at the same time strapping his kunai launcher to his right fore arm underneath his black shirt. 'Always works wonders in a pinch.'

Taking another look at himself in the mirror, he stared into his blue orb for a moment before turning his gaze wide and looking into his crimson orb, the tomoe spinning slightly as he stared into it. 'Shisui-niisan ...'

Holding a hand over his left eye for a second, he made to grab the black headband sitting on his bedroom desk before remembering something and looking back at his mirror. Hanging over the corner of his mirror was the forehead protector which he had earned from Iruka the previous night.

Grinning madly, he grabbed the forehead protector and placed it around his forehead, putting into a position to keep his bangs somewhat organised, before he lowered the left half of it to cover up his Sharingan eye.

Giving himself a once over and thumbs up to his mirrored self, he grinned under his mask before making his way into the kitchen and grabbing a bowl of Shinobi O's and scoffing down the rudimentary breakfast.

"Alright, time for that run around the village to get the body warmed up!" With a raised fist, Naruto looked up into the sky and took in the heavenly feeling of the sun's rays hitting his exposed body parts, sighing contentedly. With a few stretches, Naruto ascended to the rooftops to make his way to the outer wall of Konoha so that he could start his morning jog.

While scaling the rooftops, Naruto took in the sights of a few merchants readying their stores for the day ahead as well as passing by a couple of Chunin walking down the streets every so often, no doubt performing their morning duties hoping to not have to chase down a certain spiky haired blond. He snickered at the thought.

As the front gate of Konoha became more visibly clear, he noticed 2 ninja standing at the gate, one performing a series of insanely strenuous stretches, and the other writing down notes onto a small notebook by the looks of it.

Once he got within ear shot of them, he began to hear their conversation, which sounded, in the infamous words of a certain Nara heir, 'troublesome'.

"Yosh Gai-sensei! Your words are most youthful. If I cannot beat Neji in a spar today, then I will just run 500 laps around Konoha on my hands. And if I cannot do that then I will do 1000 one-armed push ups with each arm!"

'Did I just hear right? 500 laps ... on his hands?!'

"Your flames of youth burn brightly my young student. If you are unable to beat Neji in a youthful spar today, then I will run 500 laps around Konoha on my hands with you Lee, as a show of my youthful support as your sensei."

Naruto watched as the 2 'clones' conversed, his one visible eye twitching as he saw the smaller clone on his knees crying anime tears of joy while the bigger clone gave him a good-guy pose, complete with thumbs up and sparkling teeth.

Sensing that they were no longer alone, the 2 ninjas turned to the blond haired visitor whose one visible eye was twitching before he noticed they were looking at him and shook himself of his stupor.

"Uh, sorry about that. I couldn't help but overhear your guy's conversation. Did you really say you would run 500 laps around Konoha ... on your hands?"

"Of course!" answered the smaller of the clones. "And if we cannot do that we will do one thousand one-armed push ups with each arm."

"Yeah ... right," replied Naruto, drawing out his last word at being completely weirded out by the two, although he couldn't help but smile slightly at their antics, no matter how weird they seemed. 'They seem so care-free ... and every ninja has his quirks I suppose ...'

"Well, anyways, my name's Naruto," he said with a two finger salute before grinning foxily and giving an eye smile. "Nice to meet you."

With a thumbs up and a bright smile, the younger clone spoke up. "Yosh! It is nice to meet you too Naruto-kun. My name is Rock Lee, Konoha's Handsome Devil!"

"Yes, it is very good to meet you Naruto-kun. My name is Maito Gai, or otherwise known as the Noble Green Beast of Konoha." This was all said complete with the 'good guy' pose, causing the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki's eye to momentarily twitch once again.

Both clones were wearing green spandex body suits with orange leg warmers, both had bowl haircuts with black hair and both had rather bushy eyebrows. The smaller clone's forehead protector was strapped around his waist like a belt, and the older one was wearing his Konoha flak jacket unzipped with his forehead protector also around his waist like a belt.

"Yo," was all the two bushy-eye-browed clones got with a 2 finger wave from the blond, seemingly reminding the older one of a white haired cyclopean ninja he knew.

Noticing his forehead protector, Lee spoke up. "You are a shinobi Naruto-kun, yet I have never seen you around before. Are you a new ninja?"

Grinning widely, not that they could see anything besides his one visible eye, he straightened the forehead protector on his face. "Yep. I graduated from the Academy yesterday, so I'm a new Genin, but I'm no push over because of that. I actually came here this morning to have a nice run around the village for a warm up."

Unknown to Naruto, that was the wrong thing to say to these two particular shinobi, who were eccentric beyond comprehension.

"Yosh! That is a most youthful idea Naruto-kun. We must join him Gai-sensei," Lee said as he looked pleadingly at his sensei.

"Yosh! I agree Lee. Your flames of youth most definitely burn brightly young Naruto-kun."

"Thanks ... I guess," replied Naruto with one hand behind his head, looking rather sheepish. "And you guys are more than welcome to join me. I could always use some company."

"Okay Lee! We'll take it a little slower today for our new friend, so what say you to 10 laps around Konoha's almighty walls?"

"What a splendid idea Gai-sensei! Then we can see how brightly Naruto-kun's flames of youth burn!" agreed Lee, with a fist pumped into the air and flames burning in his eyes.

"That doesn't sound too bad. 10 laps it is then," said Naruto as he began stretching, readying himself for the run.

'So this is the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki ... I simply cannot understand why so many of the villagers are resentful towards him. He seems like a perfectly decent person to me ... and he reminds me a bit of Kakashi as well with that mask and cool, laid back attitude of his.'

Seeing the serious gaze on his sensei's face, Lee decided to speak up. "Is something the matter Gai-sensei?"

Shaking off his thoughts, he turned to his student and gave him a thumbs up. "Everything is fine Lee. I was just thinking that our new friend Naruto-kun here looks very similiar to my eternal rival, Kakashi."

"Yosh! You have a keen eye Gai-sensei. He does bare a striking resemblance with the way he wears that mask. And there cool attitudes are the same as well. Perhaps we should introduce the two on our run this morning?"

"What a most youthful idea Lee! Kakashi is going to be a Jounin-sensei this year, so there is a chance that Naruto-kun might be his student." Looking back at Naruto, he gave him a thumbs up. "But for now, let us start our run, we have wasted too much time already just standing around here." Seeing both younger boys nod, they started with their run around the village at quite a fast pace for any Genin level shinobi.

Much to Gai's and Lee's surprise, Naruto was able to keep up with them around the village for all the laps, and once they had finished, he wasn't showing any signs of fatigue at all besides a bit of faster breathing which they couldn't make out from under his mask.

They came to a stop at a bench not too far from the Academy on the path that lead out of the village. Running on the spot and grinning wildly, Naruto gave a jump into the air with his fist raised. "Whoo! Don't you just love the rush you get when training?" asked Naruto rhetorically, smiling under his mask.

Both clones' smiles were slowly getting wider and wider, until Lee just couldn't hold it in any longer. "YOSH! Your flames of youth truly burn bright Naruto-kun! It would seem that you are a genius of hard work then as well?"

"You got that right. I was the 'dead last' of my graduating class, so I had to work my ass off to get as good as I am. And my brother was rookie of the year and is something of a prodigy, so it's always a good motivator to work harder and get stronger."

"So you were the 'dead last' of your graduating class as well." Lee said it to himself as a statement rather than phrasing it as a question, clenching and unclenching his fists. "It seems we have quite a bit in common Naruto-kun. I would like to make you my eternal rival, that way we can both push to become stronger together!" cried Lee, while holding his fist in front of his face and crying anime tears.

"Sure ... thing Lee, we're rivals then," answered Naruto with his own thumbs up.

Looking back into the tree behind the bench, Gai cupped his hands around his mouth and called to their hidden visitor who could usually be found sitting in this spot. "Come on out my youthful rival Kakashi! I want you to meet someone!"

After he called out, a fairly tall man with white spiky hair and a ninja mask on identical to Naruto's jumped out from the tree, holding an orange book in his hands that read 'Icha Icha Paradise by Jiraiya'. Manoeuvring the two ninjas in masks in front of each other, Gai introduced them both while the two stared at each other for several seconds before they both lifted up 2 fingers.

"Yo. I am Kakashi Hatake, Jounin of Konoha, pleased to meet you."

"Yo. I'm Naruto ... Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, nice to meet you too."

All their eyes widened visibly for a second, all for completely different reasons.

'So he is one of the last 2 surviving Uchiha's from the Uchiha Clan Massacre as well,' thought Gai holding his chin in thought. 'I never knew the Kyuubi's holder and the adopted Uchiha were the same people.'

'His brother is the Uchiha prodigy Sasuke Uchiha then and Rookie of the Year for this year's graduating class. I've heard that he is a genius. This is most youthful,' thought Lee, thinking of the possibilty of getting a spar with him.

'Uzumaki ... Kushina-senpai ... so this is ... sensei's son? The one he sealed the Kyuubi into ...' Kakashi's gaze saddened for a second before his emotionless stare was put back into place. 'The blue eye and blond hair are a dead giveaway; but why the mask?'

'So this is Kakashi Hatake ... or better known as Copycat Kakashi or Kakashi of the Sharingan. I've read quite a lot about him. He doesn't look like much, but I suppose that's the point.' He moved his gaze to the area under his hitai-ate. 'And he has a Sharingan implanted into his left eye as well. We really are quite similiar. It's actually a little scary.'

"Excuse me; Naruto ... was it; if you don't mind me asking, could you show me behind your mask?" asked a very curious copycat, narrowing his eye ever so slightly.

"You know that curiosity killed the cat don't you?" he asked sarcastically with a smirk behind his mask, but only received a shrug from the silver haired Jounin before he sighed. "I don't mind ... Although, I'll show you mine ... if you show me **_yours_**." He couldn't help but grin underneath his mask at the curiosity of the one eyed Jounin and the disbelieving look in all their eyes as they clearly didn't believe what he was implying. That's the way he wanted it though. The longer it remained a secret, the better.

Putting on his normal look of apathy, he refocused back on the blond haired ninja for a second before giving him an eye smile and chuckling at the 'joke'. "Fair enough. Forget I asked about it."

Nodding happily to the Jounin, he turned on his heels and threw a hand up as he walked away. "See you later Bushy Brows, Bushier Brows-sensei. And you too Kakashi; it was cool meeting the famous Copycat Nin; one of my idols if you must know."

With that said, he disappeared extremely fast in a swirl of leaves back into the streets of Konoha.

"Interesting kid ... interesting kid indeed," Kakashi mused to himself but loud enough for the Noble Green Beast of Konoha to hear him, eliciting a nod from said Jounin. 'So that is the container of the Kyuubi ... and sensei's son ...'

**(With Naruto)**

While walking through the village, Naruto was busy ignoring all the looks and glares he was getting from the majority of the populace. His body was on auto-pilot as he thought about his breakfast with Iruka in an hour. He also couldn't wait to learn this new jutsu that his older brother figure had developed himself as well. The mere prospect was making him as giddy as a schoolgirl. He always could be brought to his knees by the prospect of a new jutsu or a nice bowl of miso ramen. That thought made him frown slightly, but he didn't really pay it any mind. He was brought out of his thoughts as he heard his name being called.

Turning in the direction of the voice, he noticed that he was outside the 'Yamanaka Flowers' shop, with a smiling Ino waving him over with a watering can in her hand. Giving her an eye smile and a two finger salute, he walked over to her. "Hey Ino, what're you doing here?"

"Hey Naruto. Well this **_is_** my family's flower shop, so I work here whenever I have time and I usually water the flowers every morning." Noticing his forehead protector, she smirked and turned back to her flowers. "So, I see you graduated. Well done, I guess. I never really had any doubts that you'd be able to pass. Although from the amount of times you skipped school and all the time in class you spent sleeping with Shika, I couldn't really get a good read on your skills."

"Well, deception is the way of the ninja. And It's actually a pretty funny story how I managed to graduate, because I initially didn't pass the graduation exam because of the jutsu they asked me to perform." He had the decency to look sheepish and rubbed the back of his head with his one hand.

Ino stood wide eyed for a moment before continuing to water the flowers, sensing a juicy story here, and where there was gossip to be heard, Ino would be there to listen. "Well, I've got some time here and I certainly wouldn't mind any company while I water the rest of the flowers." She gave him a smile before turning back to the flowers.

"Well, I do still have an hour before I need to be somewhere, so sure, I'd be happy to give you some company." Smiling brightly at her, he grabbed a wooden box lying off to the side and positioned it near Ino.

As he was busy telling his story, leaving out the parts about the Kyuubi of course, Ino couldn't help but notice how the passers by were all glaring hatefully in their direction, or more specifically, at Naruto. She began to wonder why so many people hated him so, and why her parents had always explicitly told her to stay away from the boy. He really wasn't as bad as people made him out to be. And he had this cool air of mystery about him that she just couldn't shake.

Noticing how people were staring at Ino because she was with him and how they were avoiding the shop, Naruto looked down sadly and got back to his feet. "Any way Ino, that's pretty much the story of how I graduated. But I think I've overstayed my visit here. I'll, uh ... see you around."

Seeing what he was looking at, she quickly stopped him and grabbed him by the forearm. "Hey, Naruto, if you're leaving because those people are staring at me like that and avoiding the store, don't," she said, raising her voice so that everyone who was glaring at them could here. "They're just being assholes." She sent glares through her narrowed eyes at all the people on the street, just daring them to say something back.

Naruto was looking at her with his one visible eye slightly widened, not believing that somebody from his class was actually standing up for him. Besides Sasuke and Shikimaru, and occasionally Kiba and Chouji, the rest of his class didn't really pay him any mind or take out the time of day to try and speak to him, and when he took the initiative, they would just ignore him, blow him off or mock him.

But now somebody was actually sticking up for him, and this somebody was the last person he thought would be sticking up for him. She was infatuated with his brother, just like every other kunoichi in his class. Slowly turning around to face her, he genuinely smiled at her before speaking again. "Thanks Ino, that means a lot, you really have no idea how much. But I really must be going, I have to be somewhere." Turning around to leave once more, he turned his head back and looked at her with his one visible eye, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "Hey, Ino?"

Seeing his uncomfortable look, she looked at him curiously and answered while looking right into his azure blue orb. "Yeah Naruto."

"Are we, you know ... friends?" he asked nervously, feeling slightly embarassed and hoping to not be rejected, as making friends was one of his more difficult tasks during life in Konoha after his parents had been killed.

Looking at him as if he had grown another head, she quickly righted herself and smiled at him while nodding. "Of course we are Naruto, why not."

Turning around completely now, devoid of any previous nervousness, he quickly 2 finger saluted her and eye smiled. "Okay Ino-chan, I'll see you later then." He turned around to be on his way and threw up a hand in the air, waving back to her.

Her cheeks flushed the slightest tinge of red as she registered what he said. 'Ino-**_chan_** ... It sounds nice the way he says it.' Seemingly lost in thought about a certain blond haired ninja, she continued watering the rest of the plants on auto-pilot, not paying any mind to her surroundings. 'What am I thinking?! He's Sasuke-kun's brother ... but he's nothing like Sasuke-kun ... ugh, I can't believe I'm actually gonna say this, but this is so troublesome.'

Through the window of their shop, Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father, was watching the entire thing unfold, listening through the open door how Naruto graduated and took down Mizuki, a Chunin level shinobi. He was silently impressed with the boy, even though he was the Kyuubi container. He knew that Naruto was not the Kyuubi, and he didn't hate him for it, but he never showed him or anyone else that he thought otherwise. He just went with the status quo, and followed suit with how everyone else treated the boy, not wanting to stand out or open his family up for resentment along with him. People treated him a little less bitter knowing that he was an Uchiha, but after the massacre and the fact that he was an adopted Uchiha, it made several people of the village hate him more, being the Kyuubi container and being allowed to be part of one of Konoha's most prestigious clans at the same time. It was simply not acceptable that the 'demon brat' was part of one of Konoha's elite clans that helped found the village.

But after seeing how the boy actually acted and spoke, he began to think differently about the boy. He didn't seem like the 'demon brat' that everyone made him out to be. He smiled at his daughter who was clearly lost in thought while she was watering the plants. She stood up for him when most people would've just joined in on the glaring and cursing. He was ashamed to admit it, but he would have done the latter and fallen into step with everyone else. He was doing it to protect his family. But it was clear that his daughter didn't care, and he began to wonder if maybe he shouldn't either.

**(With Naruto)**

Naruto was positively beaming as he made his way to Ichiraku's Ramen. He had just made a new friend, which was something that was not easy for Naruto in his village. At least he finally knew why everybody hated him though. He'd just have to make them acknowledge who he is ... Naruto Uzumkai Uchiha. Not the Kyuubi.

He walked through the flaps of his favourite Ramen stand and was immediately greeted with the heavenly smell of ramen being made behind the counter by Teuchi. "Hey Teuchi-Ojiisan, it's smelling great in here."

"Hey there Naruto, how you doing? You want the usual?"

"No thanks Ojiisan, I'm actually waiting for Iruka-sensei to arrive. He's treating me to some ramen this morning for graduating from the Academy." While saying this, he was grinning widely and purposefully fiddling with his forehead protector to show it off.

"Well done Naruto, Ayame and myself had no doubts that you would become a ninja." He smiled brightly at his favourite customer. He found it very reassuring that he had found a friend in Iruka. Naruto and his brother Sasuke were all alone for the past 4 years, so they had become like a bit of a makeshift family. "Where's Sasuke by the way? Did he also graduate?"

Nodding quickly, Naruto let him know that Sasuke was still at home and was also a ninja, and that they'd be getting assigned to teams tomorrow. It was at this point that Iruka walked in.

"Iruka-sensei! You finally made it. You don't know how difficult it's been to restrain myself from eating while waiting for you! I don't do that sort of thing for anyone you know, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed dramatically while feigning a mock irritated expression.

Iruka laughed loudly and greeted his student with a ruffle of the hair. "I can only imagine what you must be going through Naruto," he replied sarcastically, laughing harder at his student's one visible eye narrowing.

"Laugh it up Iruka-sensei, but don't forget you're paying for this whole outing, and I am absolutely **_famished_**." It was now Naruto's turn to laugh because Iruka was suddenly moping on his chair with a small rain cloud poised above him. Iruka knew all too well that Naruto was capable of eating someone out of all of their hard earned money, especially if it was treating him to ramen.

After ordering their ramen, in an attempt to draw his student's attention away from the food that was being prepared, he decided to explain to Naruto his jutsu. "So, Naruto, how about I explain to you my jutsu that I developed." Seeing the eager nodding of his student's head, and most of his attention being diverted away from his ramen to listen, he began speaking.

"Now, this is a sensory type jutsu, and before you start moping about it not being some 'kick-ass' jutsu, this jutsu can come in very handy in a pinch when you aren't able to spot your enemy. It's called **Chakura Sonābāsuto (Chakra Sonar Burst)**. This is how I was always able to see what you guys were doing in class when my back was turned and I was writing on the board." He smirked after seeing his student's one visible eye widen in shock.

"So that's how you always knew Shika and I were sleeping! Although, I don't think you would need a jutsu to know that." He chuckled lightly with his sensei before gesturing for him to continue.

"So, any way, to perform this jutsu, you don't need any hand seals, all you have to do is gather the chakra inside your body, and release it all at once in a single burst. The chakra will disperse in all directions, and because chakra travels at a faster speed than sound, your chakra will bounce off the objects around you and create an 'echo', so to speak, and you'll be able to feel the things that your chakra bounces off rather quickly."

"Wow Iruka-sensei, that's pretty cool! How the hell did you ever come up with something like that? It sounds quite complicated."

Iruka puffed his chest out at the praise he was getting from his student. It felt good to have your ego's flame stoked every now and again. "Well, after learning how dolphins see underwater in the dark depths of the ocean using what's called 'echolocation', I adapted it to form this jutsu. Now, why don't you give it a try. Try sensing for people that are coming from behind the curtain, see if you can 'see' them moving around outside."

Getting ready to perform the jutsu, he quickly looked back to his sensei and gave him a puzzling look. "Hey sensei, what's it supposed to feel like?"

Thinking on it for a second, he looked at Naruto before simply shrugging his shoulders. "I'm not sure how to explain it Naruto, just try do it quickly and tell me if you can feel anything."

Naruto face-faulted at his sensei's explanation, but quickly got back onto his seat and nodded to his sensei, building up his chakra and sending out a quick burst. He was amazed to find that he could actually feel all the things around him. He couldn't really distuingish between what was what though, he could just 'feel' that they were there and roughly how far away they were. "Hey, Iruka-sensei? I can feel the stuff around me, but I can't really tell what's what, y'know?"

Seeing his students confusion, he waved him off and turned to his steaming ramen that was placed in front of him. "Don't think too much on it Naruto, that will come with time the more you use this jutsu, and what's great about this jutsu is you can pretty much practice it wherever you are. It might seem like a bit of a waste of chakra, just letting it out in bursts, but for someone with your ... 'unnaturally' large chakra reserves, you should be perfectly fine. Eventually, I'm sure you could end up sending out permament waves of chakra continuously without even thinking about it, then you'll never be snuck up on again."

Thinking on the merits of this kind of jutsu, Naruto beamed at his sensei before muttering a quick 'Itadakimasu' and snapping his chopsticks in half, digging into his food, and surprising his sensei as he watched Naruto's food go straight **_through_** his mask. Iruka quickly shook off his surprise and shook his head amusedly. Was Naruto really that secretive? And was it really that shocking to see Naruto, Konoha's Number One Most Unpredictable Prankster, eat food straight through his mask ... no, not really.

Naruto began to continuously send out bursts of chakra to try and get a hang of this jutsu and get used to feeling things with it. He didn't make any progress at all when they were done, but he wasn't really expecting to.

Once they were finished with their food, Naruto having scoffed down 6 bowls only on account of not wanting to bankrupt his sensei, he turned back to the owner with a confused look, only realising something was missing now. "Hey, Teuchi-Ojiisan, where's Ayame-neechan?"

"She's gone out the village for a while looking for better suppliers for the ramen stand. She should be back in a couple days' time. I'm surprised you didn't notice sooner."

Naruto looked down ashamedly for a second befoe looking back up at Teuchi. "Okay, well when she gets back, tell her I haven't seen her in a while and I'm sorry for that. I'll come around again in a few days to see her again." Naruto turned to his sensei once they were both getting ready to depart. "I just want to thank you for breakfast this morning sensei. And for teaching me the jutsu you developed. And for just being my sensei and actually giving a shit about me, y'know. I'm just ... I really, truly appreciate it sensei, and I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you." He gave his sensei his most genuine smile that shone brightly through his mask, before turning around to leave.

Before he could leave, Iruka spoke up. "Just ... just don't die ... Naruto. Please ... just don't die."

Letting silence carry over for a few moments, Naruto turned back to his sensei with an eye smile and his fist raised over his chest. "Not until I become Hokage Iruka-sensei, dattebayo!" With that said, he left the ramen shop to go take his ID photo for registration.

On his way there, his thoughts began to get onto the topic of his newest jutsu that he'd learned, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. His clones could gather information, and when they dispelled, he would experience everything that they experienced, or at least that's what it said. He'd need to try it out first hand first though before assuming anything. The possibilties of using this jutsu to train were unimaginable. He decided that now was as good a time as any to test it out, so he ascended onto the roof and formed the familiar cross seal. "**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)**."

He created a couple copies of himself and faced them. "Okay guys, I need you on the left to go to the Konoha Archive Library and get as many books on fuuinjutsu as you can. Now that we're ninja, we're finally allowed to go in there, and although the Uchiha vault has plenty of jutsu, it doesn't have anything else besides just that; jutsu. Then take them home and start reading. You on the right. I want you to go to the library as well, and take out books on kenjutsu and start reading on the forms and stances. If this all works out, I'll start doing this more often with even more clones. This will help take our training to new levels for sure, dattebayo!"

Both clones nodded and saluted with an 'Okay Boss' before heading off to the library to start with their tasks.

With his clones on their way, he quickly went to go take his photo at the Academy where it was a simple get-in, get-out mission. After he had taken the photo, he had the rest of the day left to do whatever he felt like, so he decided to go walking through the training grounds around Konoha, while still sending out chakra bursts every now and again to get a feeling for everything around him.

While walking through the clearing of a training ground, he noticed a few training dummies that were littered with kunai, shuriken, fuma shuriken; pretty much anything with a sharp point or blade was protruding from out the dummies.

Naruto sent out another pulse of chakra and immediately felt something small moving towards him at an incredible speed. He quickly lifted up his forehead protector and time seemed to slow down as he looked at the direction the projectile was coming from with his Sharingan. About 30 metres out, he noticed that a kunai was whizzing straight at him. Just as it came within 10 meters, he sidestepped and caught the kunai before spinning around on the ball of his foot and sending the kunai back in the direction it came from, using the momentum from when it was thrown to double its speed.

Once the kunai disappeared into the tree tops again, he heard a girl shriek before dropping from the tree branch and landing ass-first on the ground. She had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes with her hair being worn in traditional Chinese-style buns on either side of her head. She had short fringe-bangs falling over her forehead protector which was worn traditionally around her forehead.

She was wearing a pink sleevless qipao-style blouse with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons. Her pants were dark green and she wore the standard blue ninja sandals.

Quickly pulling down his forehead protector to cover his eye again, he walked over to the girl and stood in front of her while she rubbed her backside. "Hey! What was that for?! Were you trying to kill me?"

"Hehe, agh, I could ask you the same thing," she said sheepishly, still rubbing her backside to try and numb the pain. "You've got fast reflexes kid. I really didn't think someone as young as you would be able to react as fast as you did."

"Hey, I'm not a kid! And what if I didn't react fast enough?! I would've been killed!" He glared down at her and waited for her to respond.

"I'm sorry, but I thought you were my sensei's 'eternal rival' so I was just testing your reflexes for kicks."

"Your sensei's eternal ... wait, you mean Gai-sensei? You thought I was Kakashi?"

She looked at him incredulously and nodded dumbly. "How did you know?"

"I met them this morning along with, I'm presuming him to be your teammate, Rock Lee, your sensei's clone." He snickered after thinking back on the size of both their eyebrows. He was sure they probably had a life force of their own.

"I see. Well that does explain how you know my sensei. By the way, I'm Tenten."

He eye smiled down at her before sending a hand down to help pick her up. "Nice to meet you. I'm Naruto. Sorry for throwing that kunai at you. I guess I can understand why you threw it though. Trying to test the 'great' Copycat's reflexes."

She grabbed his hand and her breath hitched for a split second upon making contact with his warm skin and the warm feeling of his chakra before she composed herself and got back onto her feet. "Don't apologise. It was my fault. I guess I got a bit wreckless. But your reflexes are impeccable. I've never seen you around the village before."

"Yeah, I graduated yesterday, and I guess you could say my reflexes are somewhat decent."

"So, you're a rookie huh?" she offered with a smirk. "Are you some kind of prodigy or something, because I'd say your reflexes are a little more than 'somewhat decent'," she answered him, giving him a stare with her hands placed on her hips.

"Actually, far from it. I'm what the Academy likes to call a 'dead last', like Lee." He grinned under his mask at seeing her expression change from wide eyed to disbelieving to a cocky smirk. He frowned at seeing her smile.

"What say you we have a friendly spar? If you're anything like Lee, then I'm sure you're a 'genius' of hard work, so you're bound to give me a nice warming down match **_kid_**." Looking at his one visible eye twitch, she smirked and took a jump back and got into a stance.

"I told you I'm not a kid! And if you're looking for an easy spar you've got another thing coming!" He smirked before jumping back and taking a stance as well, his grin under his mask showing in full form right through the material. "You know, this'll be a good chance to test my skills against an experienced genin - see how long it takes to put you down easy, y'know."

He watched as a tick mark formed on her forehead before she calmed herself down with a couple deep breaths. "That's quite the the claim for a 'dead last newbie' who's just been let off the training wheels, **_kid_**."

The way she emphasised 'kid' irked him somewhat, but he fought to keep his face expressionless, his mask doing wonders to aid this. "If that's how you feel, then come at me."

They stared at each other in a very dramatic standoff of sorts for several seconds as the wind blew the leaves around in a vortex-like gust. As if on some mental cue, she grabbed a kunai from behind in her rear pouch and threw it as Naruto flicked his right wrist and grabbed the kunai that flew into his hand via his spring-loaded kunai holster to deflect the incoming weapon.

As he deflected it, Tenten was coming at him from in the air with another kunai pulled back to stab at him. He dodged left, avoiding her stab and threw a low spinning kick at her legs. She used the momentum from her jump to carry on going forward and effectively dodge the kick, spinning around and throwing her kunai at his neck.

He saw her release the kunai and bent backwards to avoid the kunai, going into a backwards roll before finding his footing and quickly launching at her again. He threw 2 swipes with the kunai in his hand, looking to nick at her abdomen, but she effectively blocked the swipes using her own kunai to block. She used her left hand to grab into her rear pouch this time and pulled out 4 shuriken in between her fingers. She jumped back and threw her shuriken at him, forcing him to do the same, before she pulled out a small scroll and released a wooden staff. She put the scroll back and got into a boujutsu stance.

Seeing her unseal a new weapon, Naruto grabbed one of the kunai off the floor that she threw earlier and through it in her direction while quickly going through several hand seals and shouting out, "**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)."**

1 kunai became 100 and Tenten's eyes became wide before she grabbed another scroll and quickly summoned a metal dome to protect herself from the barrage of kunai. After resealing the dome, she stood up and narrowed her eyes at him. 'He definitely doesn't fight like an ordinary Genin, that's for sure. It's hard to believe he graduated yesterday.'

She began spinning her bo staff around her hands and fingers with great skill, causing Naruto to frown in thought. 'She's definitely a weapons expert, no doubt about that. And she's got one helluva throwing arm too. It seems she can use a staff as well. Guess it's time to up the ante ...' With that said, he withdrew his chakra blade from its sheath on his lower back, and began to pump his chakra into the blade, prompting it to glow blue with the density of the chakra and extend indefinitely.

She charged him once again, not paying any mind to the weapon he was holding. She started attacking again by throwing in frontal jabs, forcing him to dodge left and right to avoid the blunt force of her staff. Seeing him dodge her attacks so easily, she began spinning it in her hands again to try and throw him off, sending in a jab or a swipe every now and again.

She drew her staff above her head and went for a vertical slash, to which Naruto brought his sword up to parry the blow. Once her bo staff got within an inch of the blade, the chakra surrounding it made contact and sliced the staff in half before it even touched the actual blade.

She disengaged him and lowered the half of her weapon that she was still holding, breathing heavily after their encounter so far. "You're pretty good for ... a dead last ... you know that?"

Naruto was breathing slightly faster than normal, but otherwise thanks to his stamina he wasn't really feeling it. "Thanks. You're pretty amazing yourself. You got one hell of a throwing arm. Although, I hate to say it, but I win."

Confused by his brash statement, she was about to laugh at him and berate him for it before she felt the cold steel of the flat of a kunai being pressed against her neck. She looked forward again at the 'real' Naruto to see him 2 finger salute before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

She stood there stock-still, not moving a muscle before voicing her confusion and bewilderment. "When ... and how?"

He leaned forward and put his face next to her ear, causing her to stiffen slightly and shudder involuntarily. "In that order; when you were in that dome of yours. As for the how, I created a clone and substituted with it while you were ducking for cover under your metal dome, and then I just waited for you to turn your back and slightly drop your guard to get at your blind spot."

He lowered his kunai and allowed her to turn around before he held up his hand with 4 fingers extended. She stared at him in confusion. "Four minutes."

Giving her a couple seconds to catch on to what he was saying, her eyes widened slightly before she glared daggers at him with a pout on her face. Seeing her about to speak, he quickly held up his hand to interrupt her. "Your strong. Crazy strong. One of the strongest kunoichi I've seen thus far. The only reason you lost today was because you clearly underestimated me. But don't let that get you down. Just train to get stronger so that you won't ever have to lose again." He turned around with his hands in his pockets and began making his way out the clearing. He threw up his right hand before turning his head slightly to the side. "I'll see you around, Tenten." He raised his voice so that it was a little louder. "And you too Bushy Brows; and friend." With that, he cooly disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving Tenten with her thoughts.

Hearing someone drop down from a tree, she assumed it to be Lee and continued looking to where Naruto was not even 2 seconds ago. 'Oh he's good ... he's really good. He absolutely wiped the floor with me.' She smirked at the thought of the possibility of a rematch.

"Naruto-kun's flames burn brightly for being a 'dead last' like me. He truly is a splendid ninja."

Hearing another person drop down, she was about to turn to see who it was, but stopped when they began to speak. "I'll admit he has a bit of skills, but as he said, he was a dead-last, and once a failure, always a failure. His fate has been decided long before he was even born."

Frowning at her stoic teammate's usual cold deameanor, she turned around to leave with them. 'You're a genius Neji, no doubt about it; but sometimes, you can be a real idiot.'

**(With Naruto)**

Naruto arrived back at home to find it completely empty. He silently wondered where Sasuke was but paid it little mind as he realised that it was only 7 at night, and his brother would most probably still be training outside in the training grounds.

He went to his room as he quickly went for a 5 minute shower, washing himself clean of all the dirt he accumulated that day from all the training and the spar with Tenten. Coming out of the bathroom, he watched as his two clones continued to read on the floor with interested looks on their faces. 'Looks like the books aren't half bad,' he thought. 'Maybe it would be better if I read them instead?'

He decided he would read the fuuinjutsu book and leave kenjutsu to his clones. Uzumaki were masters of fuuinjutsu after all, or so he read. It would only make sense for him to learn the art himself, in honour of his real family. He let those thoughts go as he jumped into bed and decided to get some well deserved rest. 'Another day come and gone ...' he thought softly. 'I'll definitely tell Sasuke tomorrow morning, dattebayo.'

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**AN: With some of the stuff I have planned for Naruto, he's going to seem a lot stronger than in canon, but in some character's cases I'm going to make everyone else somewhat stronger proportionately, so there will not be a God-like Naruto, as I stated the last chapter I think. Anyways, thanks for reading, hopefully this story tickles your fancy, until next time ...**

**Justin**


	4. Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, Team

**AN:** **Hey guys, i'm back again with the next installment of the story. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, so read up and tell me what you guys think. Also, i've gotten a couple reviews about their being a lack of NaruMikoto moments in the first chapter, so i think what i'll try and do is cut the first chapter in half somewhere, refill it with more of Naruto's childhood, and then start the other half as chapter 2. I'll do my best to write that up as best as I can, so do not fret ... Justin is on the job :D**

**Anways, here's the next chapter, let me know what you think ;)**

**Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Naruto ... at least I think I won't. Naruto and the aspects of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 4: Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha - Team ...**

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Naruto was jolted awake from his pleasant dreamless sleep by a sudden influx of information on seals and kenjutsu kata's. Naruto sat up slowly and began rubbing his head. 'Damn ... my clones must have been reading the entire night. So I guess that little jolt and a headache are the only drawbacks to using this training method. What a pain. I gain their experience as well as their exhaustion and some added mental stress. But I can recall all the information they read, so training successful I guess.' His sore head was telling him otherwise though.

Getting up and going through his normal routine, he showered and got dressed and made his way to the kitchen where he found Sasuke sitting down already eating his cereal. "Morning Teme. You ready for the team selections today?"

The only answer he got from Sasuke whose mouth was full was a grunt in the affirmative. "Hey, listen Sasuke, there's ... something I need to tell you." Sasuke's head immediately snapped up to listen to his brother. The way he used his actual name instead of referring to him as 'Teme' and the tone of his voice let him know that this must be serious. Sasuke nodded and gestured to him to continue.

"Okay, so, you remember what I told you two nights ago about what happened with Mizuki." He got a nod and then continued, this time much softer, slower. "Well, I also found out that night why everybody hates me, and not just because I'm an adopted Uchiha. I'm ... the Yondaime Hokage, he ... on the night of the Kyuubi attack, the Yondaime didn't kill the Kyuubi like we learnt in the Academy."

All Sasuke's attention was focused on Naruto now, as the way he was talking was starting to worry him slightly. "Instead, the only way for the Yondaime to defeat it was to seal it away, into a newborn baby ..." Naruto let it hang there before waiting for a response from Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes widened and he dropped his spoon into his bowl and looked straight into his brother's blue orb, asking him silently the question that was on his mind. Naruto just gave Sasuke a slow nod, to which Sasuke's eyes widened even more. "So you're ... you have ... this explains so much ..." he said, turning his gaze towards the cereal on the table in front of him.

"Do you hate me now Sasuke? Knowing that I have the Kyuubi sealed inside me?" Naruto knew it was a pretty straightforward assumption to make, but living with a brood for a brother, you pick up a thing or two. He lowered his head when he didn't receive an answer. After a few moments, Naruto felt a pair of arms wrap him in a hug, something nobody else would ever see the usually stoic raven-haired Uchiha do.

"Baka! You're such a Dobe." Naruto smiled behind his mask and let a couple tears fall from his one visible eye, feeling as if the weight of the world had just been taken off his shoulders. Although many thought Sasuke was cold, when it came to his last remaining family member, he kept his personality from when he was younger. Around Naruto, he would smile and laugh every now and again, even cracking his own sarcastic jokes once in a while.

"Thanks teme."

Sasuke remained there for another minute before he got his bowl and placed it in the basin. "Hurry up Dobe. We're leaving for the Academy in 15 minutes. We don't want to be late for team selections."

Naruto just nodded and 'mmhmmd' through his cereal-filled mouth before he carried on shoveling down his food through his mask as quickly as possible, seemingly defying the laws of ... something. His mind was set on onto the team selections today now that he had the Kyuubi bombshell off his shoulders. He was really hoping to either be put onto a team with Sasuke or Shikamaru, and he hoped that his sensei was 'super awesome and could kick some serious ass' so that he could become even stronger too.

Finishing up his food and throwing his bowl into the basin, he quickly ran to his room to strap his weapons pouches to his right thigh and lower back, and then his spring-loaded kunai holster to his right forearm under his shirt sleeve before running back to the front of their house to meet Sasuke.

Locking up the house, Naruto turned to Sasuke and they both left for the Academy in a comfortable silence, one of them hardly able to keep in their excitement and the other putting up his usual stoic facade.

Upon entering the class, they were surprised to find out that they were a tad bit late, and once getting to their seats, they sadly found out that they had **_only_** missed the beginning of Iruka's 'I'm proud of you all' speech, so they would still have to go through the rest of it. They mentally sighed as they joined their lazy, cloud watching desk mate.

"Now, as I was saying ..." Iruka continued, getting back into his stride, "... you are all now ninja of Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**, and from this day forward you are all recognised as adults, so you will be expected to act as such, in a respectable and mature manner." The class audibly groaned at that, but Iruka continued nevertheless. "You are all to be expected to carry out your missions to the best of your abilities for the benefit of our home and comrades. So, as shinobi and kunoichi of this village, I would just like to wish you all luck and tell you that I'm proud of the ninja you have become. With that being said, let's move on to the team selections."

The class all visibly perked up at that and straightened up in their seats, giving Iruka there full attention. He deflated a little at the sight as it gave him an indication that no-one was really paying attention to his previous speech that he worked so hard on.

**(Hokage Office)**

In the Hokage Office were all the prospective Jounin-sensei for this year's crop of Genin coming out of the Academy along with the Hokage. They were all standing around his desk watching all the Genin on his crystal ball as they conversed inside the classroom.

"So ..." one of the Jounin with brown eyes, a beard and black spiky hair began, blowing out a puff of smoke from his cigarette before continuing, much to the vexing displeasure of a certain red-eyed Jounin. "The rookie of the year is Sasuke Uchiha, one of the survivors of the Uchiha Clan Massacre. He looks to be a promising ninja if his Academy grades have anything to say about it."

"Don't forget his brother, Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, the other survivor, who was the 'dead last' of this year's crop," a random Jounin muttered. It was still a mystery to many why the theory portion of the Academy was such a huge contributing factor to your overall grade upon graduating. When fighting out on the field. It was your abilities that determined how well you did, not your knowledge of 'the History of Shinobi.'

"He clearly doesn't deserve the name of the Uchiha Clan with his grades," another random Jounin spoke out, clearly one of the few shinobi who held it against Naruto for holding the Kyuubi. "He failed the theory and the ninjutsu portion of the exam."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," spoke a white haired cyclops flatly, eyeing the crystal ball intently with his hands in his pockets. "There's more to that boy than meets the eye ... no pun intended, and I'm sure Hokage-sama can vouch for me about that. I mean, he did single-handedly take down the Chunin Mizuki all on his own."

They all looked to the Hokage who had a soft smile on his face as he watched the crystal ball make its way onto Naruto's form. "Oh, I can assure you that Naruto-kun is quite the ninja and he will be turning heads in the not-too-distant future. You can be sure of that ..." He took another puff of his tobacco filled pipe before emptying his lungs and staring sagely back at his crystal ball, his voice much lower than before. "... you can be sure of that. The next generation has the potential to surpass us all."

**(The Academy)**

"... The members of Team 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha, with your Jounin instructor being Kakashi Hatake."

Sakura jumped into the air and smiled brightly at her 'Sasuke-kun', illiciting a 'Hn' from said boy as he groaned and fell onto his arms. She then turned around in her seat and pulled her one eye lid down while sticking her tongue at her rival Ino. "Take that Ino-pig, love conquers all! Sasuke-kun and I were destined to be together." **_'Cha! Nothing can keep us apart now. Shannaro!'_**

Naruto and Sasuke were ecstatic that they were both put on the same team, with the former visibly more happy and excited at the prospect while the latter just sat immobile, not changing his expression of apathy. Naruto knew his brother was secretly excited as well, but he had his 'cool' facade to keep up, as he put it, so he had to make sure to look indifferent.

"Team 8 will consist of Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka with your Jounin instructor being Kurenai Yuhi." Iruka gave them a second to take that in before moving on. "Team 9 is still in active duty so we will move on to Team 10. This team will include Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi, with your Jounin instructor being Asuma Sarutobi."

Looking around the class, he noticed that some people had various expressions and emotions playing through their faces, some with varying degrees of excitement, while others with utter looks of disappointment on their faces. Some he couldn't tell any emotional changes at all, like Shino, Sasuke, Naruto; but that was mostly due to his mask. He could otherwise feel the excitement just rolling off the newly made blond haired Genin.

"You guys now have a lunch break and when you get back your Jounin-sensei's will be here to pick you up. I wish all of you the best of luck." With that, he spared his graduating class one last thoughtful glance before heading out the door to the instructors lounge to let the Jounin-sensei know when to go fetch their Genin.

The class immediately errupted into chatter as the students slowly made their way out of the classroom and out of the Academy building to go and have lunch. Sasuke and Naruto ended up on the taijutsu pratice field side of the Academy and were sitting on the training stumps.

Naruto was eating a bowl of instant ramen that he pulled out from ... somewhere, and Sasuke was quietly sitting down against his stump with his eyes closed, wondering where his brother's ramen came from and thinking on ways to take revenge on his older brother for massacaring their clan.

After their entire clan was killed Sasuke would often think of ways to get revenge on his brother and he took his brother's words that night to heart.**_ "My foolish little brother. If you wish to kill me one day, in hate and revenge, surviving in such an unsightly manner as this, by all means flee; cling to your wretched life ... and then one day, when you possess the same eyes," Itachi said, flashing his Mangekyo Sharingan at Sasuke's downed form, "come back and face me."_**

Those words replayed in his mind time and time again, and he would more often than not have nightmares about that night; about what his brother made him watch over and over again. But he promised himself that he would find a different way to gain power, because his best friend was without a doubt his younger brother Naruto, and he could never sanely bring himself to kill his only family he had left.

Sensing someone's presence in the distance, Naruto stopped eating his ramen for a second to glance up and see who it was. He had been using the jutsu Iruka taught him non-stop since that breakfast at Ichiraku's and he was starting to get used to the whole idea of 'feeling' what was around him with his jutsu. Looking up, he saw Sakura walking towards them, looking rather nervous. Naruto frowned and decided to speak first. "Hey Sakura, what's up?"

Sasuke visibly flinched when he heard the name of the person that had joined them, but he didn't crack an eyelid. She was going to be on his team now, so he had to try to start getting used to this, and maybe she'd start to tone down on her fan-girlish tendencies. Nevertheless, his life was going to get even more annoying.

"Well, I thought, since we're a team now ... maybe we could have lunch together?" She then put both her hands behind her back and lowered her head slightly. "Also, Naruto ... I would just like to apologise for how I treated you the other day. It was completely innappropriate and immature of me, and I'm sorry."

Giving her a grin that she could only percieve by his closed eye, Naruto waved her off. "Ah, don't worry about it Sakura-chan. And sure, you can take that stump over there." He pointed to the stump in between himself and Sasuke.

Sakura's mood took a full 180 swing and she quickly got onto the stump and sat cross-legged while pulling out the bento her mom packed her and getting ready to eat it. "Thanks guys. So, what do you guys think our new sensei's going to be like?"

Slurping up the last of his ramen, Naruto let a out a hearty sigh and threw his chopsticks into the nearby trash bin and shrugged. "Well, I've actually already met the guy, and he's pretty cool. He's actually the guy I got my mask idea from." Hearing that his brother had met their new sensei got Sasuke to crack an eye open to listen to what was being said. "He's an incredibly strong Jounin of our village and ex-ANBU; one of the elites. I'm actually surprised you haven't heard of him Teme."

"And why is that dobe?" asked Sasuke as he continued to stare at Naruto through his one open eye.

"Well, for starters, he has the Sharingan in his left eye." Naruto smirked as he noticed that he managed to throw off his brother's 'cool facade' momentarily as both his eyes opened and widened considerably before he closed them again.

"Well, that's certainly **_interesting_**, hey Dobe?" So there was another person who had their clan's eyes? That would make three non-Uchiha's including Naruto, if their assumption about what that Danzo guy did with Shisui's other eye was correct.

Naruto noticed the way Sasuke emphasised that and just nodded his head at Sasuke. His brother got very 'touchy' when it came to others taking advantage of his clan's kekkai genkai, and now there was another person with his clan's doujutsu that shouldn't have it. Naruto wasn't aggressive like that. He just didn't like hating people the way that Sasuke seemed to hate people, especially their older brother. Naruto always wondered why Itachi did what he did, as it was so uncharacteristic of their brother to kill the entire Uchiha clan.

"What's this 'Sharingan' that you guys are talking about?" Sakura was listening intently to the two boys' conversation and couldn't for the life of Kami figure out what they were talking about. She was the top Kunoichi of this year's graduating class, and she was the top of her class in the theory section. She knew everything there was to know about anything mentioned in the Academy, but she had never heard about this 'Sharingan'.

Sasuke scoffed and decided that he would choose to answer by looking into her eyes and activating his Sharingan. "The Sharingan is the kekkai genkai of the Uchiha clan."

She stared into his red eyes that had two tomoe in each eye, and she became somewhat mesmorised by them. 'Sasuke-kun is so cool!' She never knew that Sasuke had a bloodline ability. '**_Cha! Sasuke-kun is the strongest ever!_**' roared inner-Sakura with her fist pumping and hearts in her eyes.

"Anyway ..." Naruto started, noticing the others making their way back into the Academy. "... I think it's time we head back inside to meet our sensei." With that said, Naruto jumped off of the stump he was sitting on and shoved his hands into his pockets, motioning with his head for them to come as well.

He began walking and let off a burst of chakra to make sure they were following, and they were. He would have to thank Iruka-sensei for this jutsu again sometime. He never knew how handy a jutsu like this would be, and wondered if his sensei was something of a genius for coming up with it.

Putting that thought aside, he realised they were back at the class and decided to get back into the row they were in before, mentally deciding to all sit as Team 7. Once they sat down, they all noticed a line of Jounin standing in front of their class, but Naruto couldn't help but notice that their sensei was not.

"Hey, Naruto, so which one is he?" whispered Sakura, looking over all of the adults standing in front of them.

"He's not here? I don't know why he's not here, but none of these people are Kakashi Hatake." He narrowed his one visible eye and decided to ask the people who probably would know. "Hey, do you any of you guys know where Kakashi Hatake is?" he asked expectantly to all the Jounin present.

The Jounin all looked at each other and snickered amongst themselves before a lady with distinctive red eyes spoke up. "I'm sorry, but if your Jounin-sensei is Kakashi you guys better prepare for a 2-3 hour wait, because Kakashi is **_always_** late." She gave them an apologetic look before turning to her team and getting them on their way.

Soon enough Team 7 was the last team in the class and while Naruto and Sasuke could handle the waiting; Sasuke because he was usually very quiet and could be quite patient when he needed to be, and after Naruto had been living with Sasuke for his entire life he had developed a keen sense of appreciation for the quiet and just sitting still while reading for hours on end.

So with that, he fished out his beginners book on sealing that he picked up at the Konoha Archive Library the other day and opened it at his last place of reading. He had always seen the library at the top of the Hokage Monument when he would go sit on the Yondaime's head and 'talk' to the Hokage's from before, but he had never thought it worth his time to go rummaging through shelves of books when they had their own bookshelf at home. But now, with his particular sensei and the knowledge that he would always be late, as well as his newly discovered clone training method he had taken a greater interest into reading more things **_'not worth his time'_**, such as sealing and kenjutsu, which they did not have at their home bookshelf. He told himself that he would definitely be finding books about all kinds of other things in the future.

"We might as well get comfortable guys. It's like that lady said, our sensei is going to be late like this all the time so I suggest taking up a book or something, like me." He gestured to his book before lying back with his feet on the desk, continuing to read, where he was currently at 'The Importance of Accuracy with Sealing Arrays' and was about to learn the sealing array for a simple sealing scroll.

Sakura, not having been prepared like Naruto, decided to just sit in her seat and sneak glances at Sasuke every few seconds, blushing and giggling profusely. Much to Sasuke's annoyance, the amount of time spent on each glance was increasing and gradually turning them into full on stares, where it was starting to border on creepy.

Sasuke eyed Naruto curiously as he created a clone that sat behind a desk and pulled out a small scroll and some ink from it's pouch. They watched with curious eyes as the clone began practising how to make a sealing array over and over again on its scroll. "Hey, Dobe, what's that clone doing over there?"

"Yeah Naruto, your only wasting your chakra making your clone do something like that." Sakura came to the coclusion that maybe he was just practicing his use of the **Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu) **but she still found that highly unlikely.

"It's actually a shadow clone Sakura, and it's not wasting chakra if it's actually doing useful things," he said matter-of-factly. "It's busy practicing how to make a certain sealing array I'm studying at the moment."

"Well what good will it do you to make a clone do that stuff, and what's a shadow clone anyway?" Sakura's interest was now piqued as well as Sasuke's, although Sakura had her doubts that he was just being stupid.

"Well, shadow clones are solid clones that were designed with the purpose for scouting, and anything that the clones experience will be returned to the user once the clone is dispelled." After hearing this the two other's eyes widened as they began to come to the conclusion of why Naruto was doing what he was doing. "So things that would usually take a week for a person to learn I could learn in a couple days if not less." He casually shrugged the point off before he went back to reading his book.

The other two continued to stare at the clone work for sometime after hearing what Naruto had just said, thinking on the benefits of such a jutsu. It was just unheard of, completely unorthodox, yet so simple and ingenius at the same time.

But before they could voice there follow up questions that they both had about the jutsu, the door to the class slid open and a mop of spiky gravity-defying silver-white hair popped itself through the opening before the owner of said mop stepped inside with his hands casually in his pockets.

"Kakashi Hatake ... or should I say, Kakashi-**_sensei_**?" Naruto smirked behind his mask and snapped his book shut, placing it back into the pouch located on the lower right of his back.

Hearing how Naruto addressed the man standing in front of them and hearing his name, the other two newly made Genin snapped their heads toward him and narrowed their eyes at their extremely late Jounin-sensei.

"So, **_you're_** our Jounin-sensei?" Sakura and Sasuke asked in unison, the tone they used for the question almost making them sound somewhat disappointed.

'Uh-oh. I hope Naruto didn't tarnish my good reputation while they've been waiting for me,' thought Kakashi, before he shook his head of his thoughts and gave them a smile, the only thing indicating this being his curved eye.

'Huh. So that's what that looks like ...' frowned Naruto, who was staring at his sensei with a bit of confusion at the attempted smile, but snapped out of his thoughts at hearing his new sensei speak.

"So, you must be Team 7." He 'hmmd' in thought for a couple seconds with his hand on his chin, eyeing them all curiously as well as taking note of the second Naruto who was still busy writing. "How do I put this? My first impression of you ... you're not quite what I expected."

'Not what he expected ... what kind of first impression is that?!' thought Sakura loudly in her mind. **_'Cha! Maybe we should let him know our first impression of him! That late bum!'_** roared Inner-Sakura with a raised fist.

'This guy doesn't seem all that special,' thought Sasuke, as he continued to eye the Jounin through his one opened eye as he was leaning on his arms. 'But if Naruto said he was good, then he must be good.'

"Alright guys, meet me on top of the roof where we'll sit down and introduce ourselves." With that being said, he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving his three new Genin alone in the classroom.

"Well, you heard him." Naruto followed suit and disappeared in a swirl of leaves, while Sasuke and Sakura headed for the door to make their way up to the roof.

'I've got to get Naruto to teach me that jutsu. I have no idea where in the family vault he found it, but I've never seen it before,' Sasuke mused, walking behind Sakura as to hopefully prevent her from just staring at him for the whole walk. Walking behind her didn't stop her from looking back almost continuously, much to the annoyance of Sasuke.

After arriving on the roof, Naruto quickly sat down on one of the steps and pulled out his book on sealing, reading through it again while waiting for the other two team members while simultaneously sending out chakra bursts to try and find his team mates.

Kakashi took note of the book he was reading and eyed it thoughtfully while leaning up against the railing of the rooftop. "So, you're into fuuinjutsu?"

Looking up from his book at his sensei's one visible eye with his own, he nodded his head and closed up his book. "Yeah, I actually only started yesterday with it because I could finally go to the Konoha Archive Library now that I'm a ninja." He then gave a sad expression and looked back at his sensei. "But after finding out that the Uzumaki Clan were famous for their fuuinjutsu prowess, I thought I'd take it up to try and honour them, y'know. I'm actually enjoying it."

Taking on a grim look for a moment, he nodded to his student's answer and looked left to where his two other students were finally approaching before they took up seats on either side of Naruto. "Okay, now that we're all here, how about we start by introducing ourselves. Things like your likes, dislikes, goals for the future and any hobbies." He then pointed his finger at Sakura and gestured for her to go first. "How about you start us off Pinky."

"W-what, me?" Seeing him nod, she shook off her initial surprise and annoyance at the nickname and looked back up at the Jounin. "How about you go first sensei so we can see how it works."

"Okay, fair enough." He nodded his head to the girl and looked on in thought. "Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes; I don't really feel like telling you guys those. My hobbies; I have a lot of hobbies. And my dreams for the future; well, I haven't really thought that far ahead." He gave them all an eye smile and then nodded his head toward Sakura. "Your turn Pinky."

The Genin just sweatdropped and stayed in that position for around a minute after hearing their sensei's answer. They all had one thought running through their heads. 'He didn't really tell us anything except for his name ...'

After shaking off her deadpanned expression, Sakura began. "My name is Sakura Haruno, **_not_** Pinky," she said as she sent a glare her sensei's way, to which he just shrugged it off. "I like a lot of things. Or, well, the thing I like the most is ... actually the person I like the most is, uh ... ooh, and my hobbies are ..." A slight blush appeared on her cheeks as she was talking and each exclamation was accompanied by a glance in Sasuke's direction and a girlish giggle.

The rest of the group just sweat dropped with a certain raven haired Uchiha looking away uncomfortably. "O-kay then," began their Sensei, 'I mean, what's a Genin team without a fangirl on the squad ...' Looking over towards Naruto this time, he gave him an eye smile and nodded in his direction. "You're up next."

Smiling brightly at his chance to introduce himself, he straightened up and began talking. "My full name is Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha. I like miso ramen, spending time with my brother, playing shogi with Shikimaru and playing pranks on people." The last declaration was followed with a sadistic giggle which put the others slightly on edge. "I dislike bullies, the three minutes you have to wait for your instant ramen after you put in the hot water, and people who can't tell the difference between a kunai and the scroll it's sealed into." Kakashi didn't miss the jab and winced slightly at the reminder that he should've tried to do a little more for his late-sensei's son. "My hobbies are training to become stronger and fuuinjutsu. My dreams for the future ..." He paused at this for a few seconds and got a faraway look in his eye before it turned into a fiery determination. "I'm going to become Hokage one day, dattebayo! Better than all the previous Hokage so that people will acknowledge me as Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha. I also want to help my brother restore the Uchiha Clan."

Kakashi was nodding his head at all the information he just received from his blond haired student, before he turned to the last member of the group and noticed the faintest of smiles on Sasuke's face before he realised he was being watched and quickly returned his face to one of indifference. "Okay, last up."

Sasuke laced his fingers together and placed them above his mouth while he leaned his elbows on his thighs, and waited a couple of seconds before he started. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I dislike a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. I don't have any dreams in life ... rather, you can call it more of an ambition, because it will become a reality. I wish to restore my clan, and to kill a certain someone ..."

Naruto just rolled his one visible eye at his brother's ambition before rubbing the bridge of his nose in exasperation. 'I know what Itachi-niisan did was unforgivable Sasuke, but ... he's not the type of person that would just do something like that. There had to be a really good reason, and I will find out what it was, dattebayo.'

Processing all the newly required information, Kakashi looked down between all his Genin. "Okay, that's it for introductions. Now that we know a little bit about each other, we will be starting with our first mission tomorrow." He saw all their expressions light up so he decided to let them form their own ideas about tomorrow before shooting down their hopes and continuing with his explanation. "Call it more of a survival exercise if you will; involving all four of us."

The Genin all frowned at this. Weren't they supposed to be starting proper missions now? They were done with all the Academy cookie-cutter stuff by now. The lone female of the group voiced the question they were all pondering. "But sensei, aren't we supposed to be doing proper missions now that we're Genin?"

Kakashi then gave them a sly grin before he bent down onto his haunches to look at them all at eye level. "Well, the answer is, you're not actually Genin yet." He watched their expressions become ones of total and utter confusion, mixed with a bit of shock, so he decided to elaborate. "The Genin exam at the Academy is mostly a formality, a filter to see which of you actually has what it takes to be a Genin. The real test comes tomorrow. I will be the one to decide whether or not you have what it takes to be competent ninja. And it won't be easy. I'm allowed to make the test as difficult as I want. There is a 66 percent failure rate, and I have never passed a team before, so you could say that this is going to be fun."

Their expressions all visibly changed, Naruto's one visible eye widening considerably, Sasuke's scowl deepened and he frowned at the implications of another exam with such a high possibilty of failing, while Sakura became wide eyed and extremely pale, looking as if she had just seen a ghost, fearing the worst after what their sensei just told them.

Seeing that they were still in a state of shock, Kakashi smirked and decided to wrap things up here. "Meet at Training Ground 3 tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Come ready in your ninja gear and don't be late." He stood up and hopped onto the railing before looking back over his shoulder with an all-too-sweet eye smile on his face. "Oh, and don't eat any breakfast, because once I'm finished with you, you'll probably just end up vomiting it back up. Well, see you tomorrow then." He gave them an eye smile before holding up two fingers and disappearing in a puff of smoke.

After sitting in silence for quite some time, Naruto jumped to his feet with his hands raised and flailing above his head wildly, absolutely losing his cool. "Is he serious?! Can he really fail us after we just passed the graduation exam?!" They all looked at him, still trying to come to terms with the situation as well, but nobody seemed to be able to answer his questions and they just hung in the air, occupying all three of their thoughts.

Seeing that the other two Genin weren't going to answer, Naruto decided that it was high time to hit up the Uchiha compound's training field to go and vent some of his frustration. "I'll see you at home Sasuke, and I'll see you tomorrow Sakura-chan. I'm gonna go home to the training grounds and blow some shit up." He ran to the railing on the side of the roof and made a dramatic swan dive over the side before he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Sasuke just shook his head and closed his eyes to think back on what they had just been told. "Show off ..."

**(Uchiha Clan Training Grounds - 3 hours later)**

Breathing heavy and lying on his back in the middle of one of the Uchiha's training grounds, Naruto was staring into the orangie-red sky that was slowly becoming darker, a few lone stars showing up in the sky already. 'I must say, explosives really do make a person feel better.' He smirked in his head and chuckled lightly. Just after the sealing scroll array, he moved on to the array for the explosive tag, which he was more than happy to learn as fast as possible.

He made fifty shadow clones and had them all doing the explosive sealing array, and he got the tag down in no time at all. He had all his clones make explosive tags with the remaining sealing parchment he had left, and he got 200 explosive tags out of the last bit of scroll. He used the first 100 blowing things up to make himself feel better after the news of their sensei's survival exercise tomorrow, which surprisingly did wonders for his mood.

He was honestly feeling a helluva lot better, and he felt that a quick nap was in order, so he slowly started to nod off.

The world around him became dark before he opened his eyes again and found himself in what looked to be some kind of underground sewerage system. He looked down and frowned upon seeing that he was up to his ankles in water; or what he sincerely hoped was water.

He looked ahead and decided to continue on along the corridor. He felt like he was being 'pulled' along a certain path, as he was seemingly on autopilot while his legs seemed to be moving all on their own. He carried on walking through twists and turns, passing various doors and other walkways before he came to a massive room with a large red gate at the other end of the room, with a slip of paper in the middle of the gate and the kanji for 'Seal' drawn on it.

He moved closer to the gate, trying to peer inside and make out what was being kept on the other side, but he couldn't see anything through all the darkness. He got to about 10 metres infront of the gate before he decided to finally stop. He could hear something or someone breathing on the other side and he waited to see if anyone would show themselves, but after another couple minutes of nothing, he narrowed his eye.

Reaching for his hitai-ate, he was about to pull it up to reveal his left eye when something finally spoke up, prompting him to freeze in mid-air.

**_"Don't you dare raise your headband and reveal that repugnant Sharingan of yours!" _**hissed out the thing from behind the massive gates. Two blood-red eyes with black vertical slits for pupils slowly opened up, seeming to light up the back of the area behind the gate. The figure slowly made its way to the gate and into the light, revealing its orange fur and nine swooshing tails in all its glory.

Naruto stared at the giant nine tailed fox, frozen in place, not out of fear, but rather out of curiosity. "So, you're the Kyuubi ..." It was a statement, but it was more to himself than to to the fox.

**_"Do not make light of my presence you impudent human! You are in the presence of the almighty Kyuubi no Yoko!"_** His tails began flailing around even more wildly for several seconds before calming down and moving around slowly behind his form once again._**"I was beginning to wonder when you would finally show up, Naruto ..."**_

"Well, I'm here now ... where ever here is." He looked around and gestured to the sewer around them.

**_"We are within your mindscape. And I'm sure you know that I am able to be controlled by that vile eye of yours?"_** hissed the Kyuubi as it narrowed its eyes at Naruto's hitai-ate.

Naruto nodded his head to this. "Yeah, I've read about your battles with Madara Uchiha and how he controlled you to fight with him against Hashirama Senju." Naruto then frowned and looked up at the demon fox who was sitting on its paws infront of him. "To be honest, I don't really have a reason yet to use this eye on you, because you haven't given me one, so as long as you don't trying anything then I won't use my Sharingan to force you into submission. As long as you co-operate."

The fox narrowed its eyes at the boy infront of him, looking for any tell-tale signs of deception in his voice or body language, but couldn't find any. **_"What are you playing at boy? You would really forfeit the use of the one thing that can control me against my will?"_**

Naruto just frowned even more at the fox infront of him before speaking again. "I just said so, didn't I. I never go back on my word. That's my nindo, dattebayo."

The fox just continued to stare at him some more before he saw the blond's face scrunch up in confusion and take on a look of heavy thought. "Hey, what's your name?"

The foxes eyes widened for a tenth of a second before it looked at him again with narrowed eyes. **_"I already told you, I am the Kyuubi no-..."_**

He was unable to finish his sentence before being interrupted by Naruto who was waving his arms infront of his body. "No, no, your actual name. It can't be Kyuubi, can it? I mean, what kind of name is that?"

The fox's eyes widened in surprise once again before he scoffed and gave him a manic grin, exposing his human sized canines. **_"You, a lowly human, do not have the right to speak my name, let alone know it,"_** he bellowed out as he chuckled evilly.

"Well, how do I earn that right?" This fox was getting increasingly difficult to communicate with. Naruto was slowly losing his patience. He definitely had a biju superiority complex. But being on good terms with the biju that was being kept at bay inside your body was what Naruto was going for here. No use walking against the grain and making worse of an already bad situation.

**_"Maybe if you release me from this acursed seal, you will earn the right to a quick and painless death."_** The fox laughed manically before looking down at the boy to see a very serious expression his face, prompting him to stop.

Naruto narrowed his one visible eye at the demon fox and then hissed out angrily. "You know, I would have thought that after being alone in here all by yourself for 12 years, you would've probably wanted some company. But with an attitude like that, you're making it exceptionally difficult for me to want to keep trying." He lowered his head and held the bridge of his nose, and let out a heavy sigh. "Look, we're both stuck in this predicament whether you like it or not, and the Yondaime Hokage placed this seal on us so I guarantee you it won't be breaking any time soon; he was a seal master after all. I'm just trying to make the best of a shitty situation, and you're making it that much harder to do. Do you really enjoy sitting down here in this sewer all by yourself with no one to talk to?! No, of course not, no sane being would. So I'm trying to offer you some peace of mind and someone that we can both always be able to talk to when we feel like it. Also, if I die, then you die as well, so keep that in mind."

Naruto just stood there and waited for the fox to say something, but it just stared down at him with narrowed eyes, seemingly trying to burn a hole through his head with his stare. Naruto just sighed again before turning around and walking back to ... where ever he came from. After several steps, he stopped once he heard the fox start talking.

**_"You are an interesting boy, Naruto Uzumaki ... and you're almost as stubborn as I am ..."_** He then lowered his voice to a level he thought only he could hear and turned around to go further back into the 'prison'. **_"... I have never had a host like you since the time of Old Man Six Paths ..."_**

Naruto's eyes widened before he quickly spun back around and looked back at the retreating form of the Kyuubi. "You mean like the Sage of the Six Paths, as in the Shinobi no Kami?!"

The fox was able to hear everything Naruto said with his enhanced hearing, and growled lowly at himself for speaking too loud. He continued to just place his head onto his paws, with a scowl on his face and the blond haired jailor in his thoughts. **_"Forget it Uzumaki ... I want to be left alone here ... now leave ..."_**

Naruto once again sighed before looking up at the fox with a sadistic grin on his face. "Well, any way, if you won't tell me your name then I'll just call you Whiskers. How does that sound?"

The fox growled loudly before it ran at the cage and smashed its body against the barrier, trying to peel Naruto's skin off his body with its huge claw, but was stopped by the blasted seal. **_"You dare mock me Uzumaki?!"_** he roared as he banged against the cage a few time.

Grinning again, Naruto skipped a little closer to the gate and made a gesture towards his headband while speaking in a sickly-sweet voice. "You know, you could just tell me your name ... or I could make you tell me," he taunted, tugging on his headband.

The fox narrowed its eyes dangerously at the boy standing in front of him who was tauntingly tugging at his headband. He growled out in anger before smashing its tails into the ground behind him. **_"You are treading on thin ice Uzumaki ... my name is Kurama ... now leave me be you manipulative worm!"_**

Smiling slightly at breaking the demon fox, he turned around and started walking before stopping and waving back with his right hand. "I'll see you around ... Kurama." The fox roared loudly again as it walked back into the shadows of its cage before it began smashing its tails around wildly in anger.

**(Back in the training grounds)**

Naruto opened his eyes to see a black and starry night, easily making out the constellation of Orion's Belt in the night sky. He stayed like that for a second longer before he smiled and made his way back home to have supper and then to get some rest.

He retrieved any shuriken and kunai that he threw while venting out his frustration and grabbed all the left over explosive tags before heading back towards his home. He took a slow walk through the compound on the way back to his home with his hands shoved into his pockets before he looked up at the beautiful star studded sky again. 'Hey, Kurama, can you see it?' He waited to see if he would get an answer, but instead of words, he heard a snarl and a low growl and some mumbling about how he was never going to be getting any peace and quiet again. Naruto smirked at that before he continued looking up at the sky as he made his way home, now knowing that he could communicate with his inner biju, much to the annoyance of said biju.

He arrived home to find Sasuke busy eating supper as well. With a nod of the head, they both greeted each other and stayed in comfortable silence as Naruto ate a steaming bowl of instant ramen, seeming to inhale it rather than actually eat it, as per the norm.

After finishing up with their supper for the night, they both got up from the table and headed off to their respective bedrooms. Naruto took a quick five minute shower before jumping into bed and allowing sleep to once again claim him.

**(The next morning - 8.30 a.m)**

Naruto and Sasuke casually walked side by side with their hands in their pockets into Training Ground 3 where they found their pink haired team mate already leaning up against one of the three training posts. It was a fairly large training ground, with the three training posts in the centre of it and a river running alongside the left of the training posts. The memorial stone was also located towards the back of the training field.

Sasuke cringed when he heard the screech of his female teammate yell out the usual 'Sasuke-kun' wherefore he just 'Hn' back at her before settling up against the training post on the far right, the furthest possible distance away from the kunoichi.

"Morning Sakura-chan, how are you feeling about this exercise?" asked Naruto, stifling back a yawn. He was honestly feeling a little antsy about the exercise, not really having any idea what to expect.

"Good morning Naruto. I've pretty much resigned myself to today's challenge and whether I pass or fail I'm not going to beat myself up about it." She seemed to have an air of calm about her that clearly wasn't there yesterday. Maybe she'd given up already? Or maybe she was just too stunned to react how she normally would? It was most probably the latter, thought Naruto. She was never usually this quiet.

He nodded at that and then went to go lean against the last available training pole, the one in the centre. He closed his eyes and began to let out bursts of chakra and started feeling around the training ground for everything he could feel; the trees, his teammates, the number of birds sitting in all the trees around their training ground. After doing that for about 30 minutes, he realised that their sensei was indeed going to be three hours late ... again!

"It's a good thing I accidentally ate breakfast this morning, because it looks like Kakashi-sensei's not going to be here for another two and a half hours." He then pulled out his 'Beginners of Fuuinjutsu by Jiraiya', noting that his book was written by the same person that wrote Kakashi-sensei's orange book, but filing that tid-bit of information away for later.

Hearing this got Sakura to frown as she had explicitly followed her sensei's advice. That wasn't to say that she hadn't remembered her new sensei's habit of punctuality, and so she decided to bring with a bento just in case a situation such as this presented itself. You can never be too prepared in the ninja world. "So, it's a good thing I decided to bring this after all." She smiled happily while biting into her food, sighing contentedly with each bite. **_'Baka-sensei! I'm going to have to teach him some manners if he's going to be late like this all the time. Shannaro!'_**

Naruto noticed Sasuke's body stiffen slightly and realised that while Naruto ate breakfast accidentally, Sasuke hadn't eaten anything at all. Naruto, being the frequent ramen-eater that he was, fished out a small scroll before tossing it onto Sasuke's lap.

Noticing what was on his lap and his brothers soft gaze, his curiosity got the better of him and he unfurled the scroll and noticed that it was a sealing scroll. He pumped a bit of chakra into the seal and the scroll was enveloped in a small puff of smoke before the tell-tale scent of ramen filled his nose and he looked down to find a nice steaming bowl of instant ramen. He looked back at his brother to see him eye smiling and gesturing towards the ramen, and not needing to be told twice, he dug in and uncharacteristically enjoyed the noodles. "Thanks Dobe ... I guess I owe you one." He sent a smirk his brother's way and was glad to see it returned from his brother along with a small nod of his head.

They stayed in relative silence for the next two and a half hours, before one of Naruto's chakra bursts came back positive with a fast approaching person. He jumped up and looked in the direction of the approaching figure, getting slightly confused looks from the other two until they saw their sensei appearing from out of the tree where Naruto was staring.

'So, he was able to sense me ... interesting.' Landing behind the middle training stump, Kakashi placed a bag he had brought with him on top of it and fished out a timer, placing it in the centre of the stump for all his Genin to see. "Morning everyone, glad to see you're all here on time." He received three glares for that comment and a loud shout of 'Your Late!' from Sakura, but he just shrugged it off before continuing. "I was walking along the road when I passed by a black cat, so I had to take the long way around."

He smiled pleasantly at them while they all deadpanned at their sensei's lame excuse. Although, something about the way the Jounin did this got Naruto to look at his sensei curiously before silently deciding that he liked the way those excuses sounded and would work on coming up with a few of his own. It definitely seemed to add to their sensei's 'coolness'.

Clearing his throat to get their attention again, he motioned for all of them to move a bit further into the clearing away from the stumps, before he reached into his back pouch and pulled out two bells, flicking them once with his free hand. "This exercise is quite straightforward. All you guys have to do is get these bells from me. It's that simple." He then turned and looked back at the three training stumps by the clock. "If you can't get one of these from me by 2 o'clock, you'll be tied to the training post and be forced to watch as I eat my lunch in front of you."

A three Genin nodded at once, understanding why he didn't want them eating breakfast. He was trying to pull a fast one on them. But they got the better of that little trick, even if it was only by accident in Naruto's case.

"You guys only have to get one bell from me to pass," he informed them while dangling them infront of the Genin, "which means that one of you **_will_** be tied to the post by the end of the exercise. The person who does not get a bell will be sent back to the Academy for failing the exercise. Although, all of you could fail to get a bell and you could all be sent back to the Academy." He gave them a casual shrug before eye smiling at them again.

They were all giving him incredulous expressions, but he ignored them and decided to carry on with explanation while at the same time tying the bells to his belt. "You guys must come at me with the intent to kill, otherwise you can forget about having any chance at grabbing a bell."

"A-are you sure s-sensei, you might get hurt?" Sakura asked with a hint of fear and concern in her voice. Their sensei might be a Jounin, but surely he was just screwing with them, right? How could they try to kill their sensei? Was he absolutely out of his mind. Sakura was mentally ripping out her hair over the suggestion made by Kakashi.

"Oh, I think I can handle it Sakura. I'm not an elite Jounin for nothing you know." He gave her another eye smile before holding out three fingers, and slowly lowering them one at a time, watching the forms of all three of his Genin lower themselves into crouches to jump away from the area as fast as possible, as soon as possible. "Three ... Two ... One ..." He held it there for a couple seconds regaling in the anxious expressions on their faces before he got serious and continued. "Begin!"

All three Genin immediately jumped out of the clearing, Naruto and Sasuke sticking together and heading for a tree branch that was concealed by hoards of leaves, while Sakura ducked under a bush in the complete opposite direction from them and got prone, looking out to the clearing they just came from. They all took care to never take their eyes off their sensei, who was still just standing there, looking around the clearing.

'Well, they certainly know how to hide properly ... nicely done.' With that, he reached backwards towards his pouch and started digging around in it, something that got all three Genin's attention. Assuming it to be a weapon of some kind, they all got ready to jump away from their spots, but all sweat dropped after seeing him pull out his orange Icha Icha Paradise and begin reading from the last place he left off, perverted giggling filling the clearing.

"He must be quite confident in his abilties if he's reading in the middle of the clearing during this exercise ..." whispered Sasuke, keeping a keen eye on his sensei. He was leaving himself wide open; or so they thought.

"Yeah well, he his Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-Cat ninja, said to have copied over 1000 jutsu ..." Naruto frowned in thought before continuing in a low whisper. "... on top of that, he's an elite Jounin as well, and there's no way we can take on a Jounin ourselves no matter how you slice it."

Sasuke nodded his head before addressing a thought that was plaguing his mind. "But I've never heard of three or two man squads before. It's always a Jounin and **_three_** Genin, not two."

Naruto scratched his chin in thought before thinking on the matter as well and letting out a chakra burst incase their sensei tried to sneak up on them. "I think I have an idea, but we need Sakura-chan first, and I doubt Kakashi-sensei is just going to wait there all day for us." That last part was said with a high amount of uncertainty, as he was sure that Kakashi **_would_** probably stay there all day reading that book if he had to. Letting out another burst, he frowned and continued. "I can't feel Sakura around here anywhere, so she must be a bit further that way. You go find her, and I'll test out Kakashi-sensei so you guys can see what we're up against. Once we're all together, we attack simultaneously; it's the only way we stand a chance at getting the bells."

Sasuke was a bit reluctant at first, wanting to take on the Jounin first himself, but relented and nodded none-the-less. His brother rarely asked him to do anything, but when he did, there was usually good reasoning behind it, and he also owed Naruto one, so he could repay him for the ramen with this. "Meet back here in thirty minutes then." They nodded to each other before Sasuke jumped down from the branch and Naruto jumped towards the clearing, reaching into his thigh pouch and pulling out three shuriken in between his fingers. Letting fly with the three shuriken at his sensei with impressive speed and pinpoint accuracy, he made a few hand seals and shouted the name of his jutsu.

**"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)"**

Kakashi smiled when he felt one of his students finally coming out to pursue him, but his one visible eye widened when he saw the three shuriken flying at him suddenly turn into one hundred shuriken that riddled the air in front of him. He had to snap his book shut in order to effectively get the hell out of dodge by pumping chakra to his legs and jumping up into the air and to his left to avoid the weapons by a hair's breadth. The sudden change of area that the attack covered almost caught Kakashi off guard ... almost.

'Shit. That was too close for comfort. I really wanted to get to the next chapter by the end of this exercise. Nevertheless, it seems young Naruto knows some interesting jutsu.' Sighing to himself, he placed his book back into his rear pouch before he looked at the place where the weapons had come from and saw four Naruto's come flying out of the trees and into the clearing in front of him.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting sensei ..." one Naruto started off, only for another to continue from where he left off "... but I thought you might have been getting a bit bored out here all by your lonesome ..." All the Naruto's got into a taijutsu pose before another one spoke up. "... so I thought I'd come out here to keep you company."

Kakashi just stayed unmoving, but he had a clear eye smile on his face. He shoved his hands into his pockets and addressed his student. "How considerate of you Naruto, you really shouldn't have."

All the Naruto's moved on their sensei as soon as he fell silent, two clones taking up his left and his right side to flank him while a third clone ran straight down the centre at their sensei before sliding along the ground, looking to knock him off his feet.

Noticing that they were leaving indents in the ground and causing dust to shoot up as they ran at him, he was pleasantly surprised to identify that they were solid clones.

The two clones from his flanks drew their arms back, ready to let fly with a flurry of punches, while the clone on the ground was closing in as well. Kakashi pumped chakra to the sole of his left foot so he could stick to the ground, before he put out his right foot to stop the incoming clone from the ground dead in its tracks. He ducked and dived forward under the two flanking clones, causing them to dispel themselves by knocking each other with their own attacks, while Kakashi shot a quick but powerful jab into the downed clone's neck as he dove forward over the clone, causing that one to disappear in a puff of smoke as well.

'Man Kakashi-sensei's fast.' Naruto stood in the clearing, rubbing his nose through his face mask in thought. 'If push comes to shove, I may have to resort to using my Sharingan in order to cope with his speed and the speed that I'll need to be moving at, but I haven't really perfected moving that fast yet, and with the speed he's moving, I'd probably be able to see everything with my Sharingan but I doubt my body will be able to keep up with it.' Naruto pulled out a kunai and began twirling it around his fingers before grabbing it in a reverse grip.

He lowered himself into a crouch before he set off at a decent pace towards their sensei, nothing too special, but fast enough for someone his age. He slashed his kunai at his sensei's face, but his wrist was caught by his sensei's left hand before it could reach. Naruto then threw a punch with his remaing hand, but that was caught with his sensei's free hand as well. Both hands neutralised, Naruto sent his left leg to the side of his sensei's knee cap, hoping to incapacitate him, but Kakashi blocked that kick by bringing up his right leg and blocking it with his shin. 'He's quite capable at taijutsu and he's got some power behind those strikes of his for a Genin,' he thought, his shin and hand feeling slightly numb from blocking the hits.

Kakashi smirked at his student before frowning once he saw the grin that he was sporting, showing right through his mask. Before he could say anything, Naruto's body glowed slightly with chakra before exploding, leaving a massive crater and dust in its wake, kicking up soil and throwing it around the clearing.

Sasuke was watching from the sidelines as he had not managed to find Sakura yet and was wondering whether his brother had just killed their sensei and what jutsu that was. Sakura was also watching from her spot and she was awed at the display of skills thus far from the blond haired shinobi. 'He's so good. I've never seen him fight like this in the Academy. I just hope he didn't kill Kakashi-sensei,' she thought worriedly, concern laced in her thoughts.

"Did I get him?" asked Naruto, as he walked out behind one of the trees he was hiding behind, his eyes darting everywhere except for the one place he needed to look.

"Not quite Naruto, but you gave it your best shot. By the way, never let an enemy shinobi get behind you." Naruto's eye widened when he heard the voice of his sensei from directly behind him, but before he could move, his sensei spoke again while forming the tiger hand seal. **"Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ogi: Sennen Goroshi (Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu: One Thousand Years of Death)."**

Naruto proceed to be flung across the clearing with a silent scream and tear filled eyes as he clutched his rear with both hands, desperately trying to soothe the burning pain of that lethal jutsu his sensei just used. The other two Genin visibly cringed while fighting down blushes at the sight of their sensei's jutsu, both fearing for their comrades life.

'What a deadly jutsu!' thought Naruto while whimpering before shooting a deathly glare across at his smirking sensei. Little did he know that Naruto was now rightly pissed and embarassed, and it was time for him to bring out the big guns. No more holding back.

'The **Bunshin Daibakuha (Shadow Clone Explosion)** ... That was a devious tactic ... But where did he learn an A-rank jutsu like that?' Feeling his student's eyes on him, he looked to find a glare being directed at him with a decent amount of killing intent for a Genin, but not nearly enough to become a hinderance, just enough to know how angry Naruto was.

"Shinobi Battle Skill No.1: Taijutsu," Kakashi stated calmly, watching his student intently. What happened next though caught Kakashi completely off guard.

He watched as Naruto slowly raised his hand to the bottom of his lowered hitai-ate and pulled it up, revealing his Sharingan in all its glory, three tomoe spinning wildly in anger and embarassment, exponentionally increasing the effectiveness of his glare. Kakashi's one eye widened and he couldn't remember having been this surprised for quite a while. 'He has a Sharingan?! Just like me?! So he really wasn't bluffing the other day when we first met? Where did he get that from?' Kakashi's mind was ablaze with questions but Naruto didn't give him any time to contemplate on them.

Naruto created a kage bunshin that stood next to him before they both went through hand seals for different techniques. The original Naruto finished first, finishing on the Tiger hand seal before bringing his hand up to his mouth. **"Katon: Haisekisho (Fire Style: Burning Ash)."**

The area around Kakashi was quickly filled with the chakra infused gun-powder, and that finally seemed to be enough to bring Kakashi out from his stupor, his eyes widening yet again. 'Elemental manipulation?! At his age? And this jutsu ... Asuma ...' But before he could voice his thoughts, the Naruto clone finished its hand seals and cried the name for its jutsu, bringing his hand up to his mouth. **"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)."**

The air all around Kakashi ignited and the area was enveloped in a large chain of small explosions and a torrent of flames, rattling the ground and throwing up dust and leaves in an impressive display, before dying down and leaving the grass beneath smouldering from the flames. What caught Naruto's eyes was the charred log that was now lying in Kakashi's last position. Naruto quickly let out a burst of his chakra sonar jutsu and found that his sensei was hiding behind a tree not too far away, so him and his clone began going through hand seals once again before both of them pulled their fingers up to their mouths, took aim at the tree and exhaled sharply. **"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Firestyle: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!"**

Kakashi heard the name of the technique and got out from behind the tree to see twelve small fireballs all homing in on his location. Forming hand seals almost too fast for Naruto to follow, even with his Sharingan, Kakashi put a considerable amount of chakra into the technique before bringing his right hand up to his mouth. **"Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Style: Water Wall)."**

All twelve balls of fire smashed right into the water wall created by Kakashi, before a thick, hot mist covered the area for several seconds. After the mist dispersed, Kakashi frowned and narrowed his eyes, as his student was nowhere to be seen, and he couldn't feel him around either. 'Must've decided to take some time to gather himself and regroup.' Kakashi shrugged off his thoughts before moving back to the middle of the clearing with extreme caution while fishing out his signature orange book. He waited and looked around casually for a while, before filling the area with muffled perverse giggles once again.

**(With Naruto)**

Naruto darted through the trees and back onto the branch he and Sasuke were sitting on earlier, panting slowly from all the jutsu he had to use in rapid succession as well as the quick tactical retreat he had to make. Letting out a burst of chakra, he was happy to find that two people were quickly making there way to the branch Naruto was occupying, and he could vaguely feel another person quite far out in the middle of the clearing.

His distance with his echolocation jutsu was slowly increasing, but he still had trouble making out specific figures and certain objects, and with the amount of chakra that Naruto was able to put into the jutsu due to his large chakra reserves, walls and obstructing objects didn't interfere with his senseing ability.

Hearing two sets of feet landing on the branch beside him, he glanced over at Sasuke and Sakura before closing his eyes and speaking his thoughts on the matter. "So ... I'm sure you guys both saw what he's capable of, and that he's not a Jounin of this village for nothing." Seeing them nod, he continued. "Also, just like Sasuke pointed out a bit earlier, there's something off about this whole exercise." He frowned at that thought, furrowing his brows.

It was Sasuke who spoke next. "I've never heard of three man squads with only two Genin before, which is strange because according to this exercise's rules, when one of us fails, that's exactly what Team 7 will be; a three man squad."

"There must be a deeper meaing to this test beyond what Kakashi-sensei has explained to us," spoke Sakura, racking her brain for the answer, although most of her thoughts were directed to the blond in front of her who had one blue eye and one red one that had three tomoe in it. He had the Sharingan. But Sasuke had told her that only an Uchiha could have the Sharingan, besides Kakashi. She was rightly confused, but she decided to confront him about it later. They had to keep focused at the moment.

"Whatever the deeper meaning is, we can't take on Kakashi-sensei one-on-one, even two-on-one would be a helluva stretch. If we're gonna want to have any chance to take him down, we're gonna need to work together." Naruto's eyes were shining with confidence which seemed to be influencing the other two Genin with him. Seeing them nod, he motioned for all of them to come closer before huddling up and beginning with their planning. "So, we'll start by ..."

**(Back in the clearing - 20 minutes later)**

Kakashi had gotten to the next chapter of his smut and was thoroughly enjoying the anticipation of the next scene. **_'... Raiya threw his left leg forward and swiped Sunade's legs out from underneath her. She fell backwards and landed loudly on her back, her ninja blouse's loose material allowing her breasts to bounce around invitingly within the material. Raiya lost his balance as he struggled to tear his eyes away from her voluptuous chest that was seemingly teasing and taunting him. He lost his footing and fell forward, landing softly on her downed form as their crotch's brushed against each other and their leg's intertwined. Raiya felt the suppleness of her warm and soft body against his, their forms seeming to meld into each other perfectly as if meant to be. Raiya slowly looked up from his position over her body, and was immediately met with 2 hazelnut orbs glistening in the sunlight, as she stared longingly straight back into his eyes. His breath hitched as she ...'_**

But just when he was getting to the juicy detailed undressing, he felt the closing in of familiar chakra signatures. The signatures of his students all coming towards him from the trees - together. He smirked behind his mask and went back to his book, although he just stared at it rather than actually continuing to read. 'So ... they're working together are they? I wonder if they've figured it out?' he thought excitedly.

Looking ahead, he spotted all three of his students running towards him, all with kunai and shuriken drawn. They released all their weapons at once, prompting Kakashi to jump into the air to dodge the onslaught of weaponry.

**"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!"** Another Sasuke appeared from the trees behind Kakashi, firing a large fireball at him. He quickly looked back at the first one to see him disappear in a puff of smoke, revealing it to be a shadow clone. 'So, the first Sasuke was just a fake ...' Looking back at the fireball making its way towards him, he quickly made a substitution with a conveniently placed rock ... too convenient in Kakashi's opinion.

As he landed back in the area where the rock had been, he found a burning explosive tag on the ground. Pumping more chakra to his legs and feet, he quickly darted for the tree line, narrowly missing the explosion's radius.

He was in the forest now amidst the trees, and looked all around him only for his eye to widen in shock, only being able to get out two words. "... **Kekkai Hojin (Perimetre Barrier Jutsu)**!"

The entire area that Kakashi was standing in was covered in four well placed explosions that rocked the grounds around them and sent dust and leaves flying around in all directions. Sakura and Naruto peeked their heads around a tree to see if Sakura's plan had worked, but to no avail. Once the dust cleared, a burnt log was all that remained in the clearing, signifying another **Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu)** by Kakashi.

"It would've been too easy if that was all it took to take down Kakashi-sensei," whispered Naruto, closing his eyes before bringing his hands up into the ram seal to focus his chakra. "**Chakura Sonābāsuto (Chakra Sonar Burst)." **Keeping his eyes closed for a couple seconds more, sorting through the things he was feeling, he felt a person 100 metres north of their position. "This way, come on," he said, pointing in the direction he felt his sensei.

Kakashi jumped down from a tree branch and back into the clearing with the three training stumps, lowering himself into a crouch to quickly catch his breath. 'That was too close ... fighting all three of them at once is lot more strenuous than just taking them on one at a time ... they're giving me a decent warm up.' He smiled nonetheless. This is what a team of Genin was capable of when they worked together instead of individually. This was the result of teamwork.

But before he could think too much on it, he was suddenly surrounded by clones of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke. Without warning, they all charged at Kakashi from different directions and angles, some choosing to attack from above while others along the ground. Getting into a taijutsu stance, Kakashi began to dispatch the clones with swift and precise taijutsu strikes, his moves serenly flowing into the next, not wasting any energy or movements while effectively taking down the clones he struck.

What he noticed though was that some of the Sakura's and Sasuke's were just regular Bunshin, while others were Kage Bunshin. It was a really simple tactic, yet it threw Kakashi off quite effectively. He struck another Naruto clone, only for said clone to disperse into hundreds of leaves in a swirling whirlwind. The hurricane of leaves all crashed through Kakashi, cutting him quite profusely, leaving gashes all over his body, his clothes ripped and blood dripping all over the floor. He quickly stopped his chakra flow before spiking it again, dispelling the subtly placed genjutsu. 'I never figured Naruto for the genjutsu type ... I suppose he has an eye for that sort of thing though,' snickered Kakashi inwardly at his little joke. He had to find the time to write some of them down.

Coming back to reality once again, he dodged back away from two slashes with kunai from a Naruto and Sasuke clone, only for two shuriken to go flying past him from behind, which he ducked under. But just when he thought he was in the clear, the two shuriken came back around and wrapped around Kakashi's form with ninja wire attached to them, effectively catching him in place.

'Damn ... I didn't think they'd possess this much skill in shurikenjutsu ... this must be Sasuke ... the Academy records did say he had exceptional shurkienjutsu skills ...' before he could ponder too much on this though, he looked back to see Sasuke standing behind him with his hands holding the Tiger seal and ninja wire being held in place by his teeth. His eyes widened when he saw that Sasuke had also activated his Sharingan, and that he had two tomoe in each eye. 'So he has also activated his Sharingan ... I didn't think he had already awakened his bloodline limit, and to this extent ... amazing, those two. They've really pushed each other quite far.'

"Hand ush the bellsh Kakashi-shenshei," muffled Sasuke while still holding the ninja wire between his teeth. "We've got you pinned." He waited some time for a reply, but nothing came. Narrowing his eyes, he inhaled deeply. 'Suit yourself ...'

**"Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu)!"** Sasuke breathed out a torrent of fire along the two lines of ninja wire, heading straight toward Kakashi. The two flames met right in the middle, sending up a ball of flames and engulfing his entire body in a torrent of fire. Sasuke held the jutsu for a minute before letting it fade and allowing the flames to dissipate.

Once the flames were gone, a severely burned Kakashi was revealed, falling forward onto his knees with his body still trapped in the ninja wire. Naruto dispelled all his shadow clones and Sasuke and Sakura got rid of all their bunshin, while Naruto and Sakura walked up to stand next to Sasuke and look down at their sensei. Just when the three Genins thought that they had perhaps actually managed to kill their sensei, 'Kakashi' melted and reverted into mud, revealing himself to be a **Doton Kage Bunshin (Earth Style Shadow Clone)**.

Before the three Genin could do anything, they heard a faint rumbling of rock before the ground bursted up from beneath them each of them, three hands grabbing up onto each of their legs before dragging them each underground, leaving only their heads visible. **"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu)."** Three Kakashi's jumped up from underground before two of them disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving one Kakashi standing before all of his Genin.

Before Kakashi could speak though, the bell from the alarm clock went off, signifying the end of the survival exercise. Even though the three Genin knew there was something amiss with this exercise, they all couldn't help but feel a little worried that perhaps they were wrong, and that they might all end up getting sent back to the Academy for failing to retrieve a bell.

"Well, it seems that it's the end of the exercise and all of you failed to retrieve a bell from me." He let out a small wave of killing intent to add some emphasis before continuing. "With that being said, I only have one thing left to say to you all." He leaned forward in a crouch and held out his fist at the three heads of his Genin. "You all ... pass." His fist was turned into a thumbs up and he gave them a genuine eye smile.

All three Genin blinked and their eyes widened in shock and confusion before they all found their voices and spoke in unison. "W-what? Why? And how?"

He eye smiled at the three, and noticing their confused expressions and questions, decided to explain. "You guys are the first team I've had that have been able to put aside their differences and work together to achieve something that would have otherwise seemed impossible if done alone. Even when there was a chance that one of you would not be able to make it, you guys were willing to carry on the rest of the way together where other teams would've continued fighting blindly only for themselves."

Walking forward, he moved to each Genin and pulled them back out from under the ground one by one before standing in front of them all once again. "While a shinobi's individual strength is important, team work is even more so. As ninja we are required to see through deception and look underneath the underneath. You guys were, for the most part, capable of that during this survival exercise, and somewhat figured out what the point of this exercise was all about; to work together. Shinobi who break the rules and regulations of ninja are trash; yes, that's true ... but shinobi who abandon even one of their comrades are worse than trash."

With that point being made, the message and idea for the entire exercise seemed to drive home, as they all got understanding looks on their faces. Naruto looked up admirably at his sensei with determination running through his eyes, truly taking his words to heart. '... but shinobi who abandon even one of their friends are worse than trash. Kakashi-sensei's word's hit close to home. I will never abandon a comrade and I will do everything in my power to protect them ...'

Sasuke and Sakura were thinking pretty much along the same lines, steeling themselves to the harsh but true fact that in the ninja world, people die. Many people die, whether they be young or old. They would need to work as a team to be stronger. As a team they **_were_** stronger, and that was made painfully obvious today with this exercise.

"Well done you guys," began Kakashi, taking out his orange book again and flipping through the pages to his last known spot. "I need to report to the Hokage that Team 7 is now ready for missions. Now that we're a team, this will be the new meeting place for our squad, every morning at 9 a.m. Take a day off and then report here in two days' time. See you guys later." He waved two fingers at them before disappearing in a swirl of leaves with his face nose deep in Icha Icha Paradise.

Unable to contain his ever growing excitement, Naruto jumped a decent ways into the air with his fist cocked skyward and screamed out at the top of his lungs. "WE DID IT! WE'RE FINALLY NINJA! DATTEBAYO!"

His two team mates were surprisingly not bothered at all by the loudness of their blond haired friend, and actually smiled at the outburst. Even Sasuke. They were now proper ninja, and it was one of those super-rare occassions where Sasuke would smile while in the company of people who weren't his brother.

Landing back on the ground, Naruto turned around to face his brother before pulling his hitae-ate back down over his Sharingan. "Hey Sasuke, this calls for a celebration, don't you think?" He asked rhetorically. "We're about due for a visit by Teuchi-ojiisan, and I haven't seen Ayame-neechan in a while either." Seeing his brother nod in the affirmative, he grinned wider before turning over to Sakura. "You should come too Sakura-chan. It can be a celebration for the official founding of Team 7."

"Yeah, sounds great. Let's go then." She then looked over at her two team mates and a small smile adorned her face. 'Team 7, huh? Kakashi-sensei, Naruto ... Sasuke-kun. I'm glad I got put on this team. It's gonna be fun.' Inner Sakura was uncharacteristically quiet as well, thinking along the same lines, silently thanking Kami for putting her on this team.

After getting Sakura on board, they headed out of the training field to Ichiraku's Ramen in blissful silence, just enjoying each other's company.

**(Hokage Tower)**

Currently standing in the Hokage's office was all the Jounin-sensei who were taking on the newly made Genin of this year's Academy students, among which included Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai Yuhi. The Sandaime was sitting in his chair, leaning back as far as it would allow him while taking a long, drawn out puff of his pipe, relishing in the great taste of his smouldering herbs. He breathed out the smoke and sighed contentedly as he closed his eyes and just enjoyed the cool breeze coming in through the window behind him.

With another puff of smoke leaving his lungs, the Sandaime was brought out of his relaxing position as a knock on the door rang out, revealing Kakashi with his orange Icha Icha Paradise in hand. Looking up at the crowd of people in front of him, he snapped his book shut and put it into the pouch at his backside before falling into line with the other Jounin-sensei.

"Ah, Kakashi, good of you to join us," started the old Hokage, taking another drag from his pipe. "Asuma and Kurenai just got here as well. Now that you're all here, you may begin your reports."

Nodding in the affirmative, Kurenai stepped forward and addressed the elder Hokage. "Team 8 consisting of Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga have all passed and are ready to begin missions."

Nodding his head to the red-eyed Jounin, he stamped a piece of paper on the table below before looking up again at the next Jounin.

Seeing his father look up, Asuma walked forward and took a long drag of his cigarette before blowing out the smoke into the cool breeze and taking a breath. "Team 10 consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Shikimaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi also pass and are ready to begin active duty."

The Sandaime nodded towards his son and wanted to berate him for smoking in his office, but disregarded the idea on accounts of rightly being called a hypocrite on more than one occasion by his son. He pulled out a second piece of paper and stamped it, confirming the addition of another new Genin squad.

Walking back into line, Asuma watched as Kakashi then walked up towards the desk of the Sandaime Hokage, thinking the exact same thing that all his fellow Jounin were thinking. 'So, another failed team, hey Kakashi?' A few who knew Kakashi personally all slowly shook their heads as he made his way up to the desk, all thinking that this year was nothing different to all his previous years. Many Jounin had placed bets as well and there was a rather large betting pool collected from all the Jounin.

Getting up to the desk, Kakashi eye smiled and placed his hands in his pockets. "Team 7 consisting of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha have all passed and are also ready to begin active duty." Kakashi smirked as the mood and atmosphere of the entire room changed, and oddly enough, somewhere in the room there seemed to be a lone cricket, rubbing its legs together as it created its clichéd music. Not a single Jounin expected to here that come from the Copy-ninja's mouth, and everyone was honestly surprised beyond belief. Sensing all their expressions, Kakashi looked straight back at the Hokage. "What can I say, they really gave me a run. You were right about them Hokage-sama."

Smiling proudly at Kakashi and his report, the old Hokage couldn't help but be somewhat glad and relieved that his surrogate grandson's team had passed, and with Kakashi Hatake as their Jounin-sensei to boot. Not an easy feat to accomplish. He stamped the paper on his desk and proceeded to call the next Jounin up, one by one. 'Your parents would be proud of you Naruto-kun. If only Minato and Kushina were able to see you now ...'

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**AN: So, that's chapter 4 up, and as I said, I will continue with writing of the next chapter as well as trying to fix up the parts about Naruto's childhood that were terribly underwritten. I apologise, I didn't mean to disappoint, but i will try my best to rectify it. Anyways, thanks for reading, until next time ...**

**Justin**


	5. The Discovery of D-ranks

**AN: Hey guys, here's the next chapter. It's taking a bit longer than usual to write the chapters up now due to University starting, but I still have plenty of free time every now and again, so I'm still keeping up with the story. This chapter is a bit of a filler chapter, taking it a lot slower than usual, and as it has been said, the story is following canon with me changing certain things up, but only up until the Chunin exams, where I plan to start going off on my own tangent, but not too far off from the actual story. Unfortunately, my imagination isn't as powerful as some other authors, so i can't start making up an entirely new plot unless I had some help... ****_*nudge nudge, wink wink*_**** :D**

**But anyways, back to the chapter at hand, the next one will be coming pretty quickly, but then the one after that will be taking a bit longer than usual to bring out, so expect the next chapter in about 3 days time. I'm just that awesome ;) On to the chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Naruto ... at least I think I won't. Naruto and the aspects of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 5: The Discovery of D-ranks ...**

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It was another beautiful morning in Konahagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**, the sun gently caressing all within the village and a slight, gentle breeze tickled the leaves of the trees located everywhere in and around the village. The air was fresh, with the scent of the entire surrounding flora permeating the air. The gentle breeze softly blew through blond hair of a certain Genin with a soft whistle.

Naruto was walking lazily through the streets of Konoha with his hands in his pockets, his mind on his newly formed Genin squad and the fact that they would be starting missions the next day. He wanted to find Iruka to go for some ramen with the older Chunin, wanting to treat him to the food of the God's for a change before he started to earn his own money. 'Today's a Saturday, so Iruka-sensei will most probably be at the Hokage Tower helping the Hokage with the mission assignments.'

With a location set, Naruto turned around and began making his way to the distinctive red building with the kanji for 'Fire' smack-bang in the centre of it. 'I should also go find a weapons store later so that I can stock up on some more kunai and shuriken and get some more sealing paper as well.'

Before he knew it, Naruto was standing outside the big building that housed the village's Hokage and made his way up the stairs to get to the Hokage's Office. Knocking on the door, he waited for the utterance of 'Come in' before opening the door and beaming at the Sandaime Hokage. "Hey Ojiisan. Did you hear the news? You're looking at a new member of Team 7," he said proudly as he pointed his thumb at his torso.

A paper weight was flung across the office and dodged by Naruto as he turned to the person he was looking for. "You can't address the Hokage like that Naruto! Show some respect for the village's leader and most powerful shinobi." Iruka had always struggled to drill some manners and respect into Naruto, but once he had found a name for a person, he wouldn't stop using it. It was his way of showing his endearment to others.

The old Hokage gave a hearty chuckle before bringing his hands up to his chin and smiling at Iruka. "It's quite alright Iruka-kun. I really don't mind." Iruka nodded dumbly before getting back to the work on his desk, prompting the Hokage to look back at Naruto. "So I've heard Naruto-kun, very impressive. What brings you here?"

"Well, actually, I came here looking for Iruka-sensei," he started, getting said Chunin to look up from his papers and give his old student his full attention. "I wanted to take you for ramen later to pay you back for all the times you've taken me. Also, now that I'm a ninja, I can finally afford to take you out with my own money Iruka-sensei." He gave a sheepish laugh while rubbing the back of his head in embarassment. They had plenty of money in the Uchiha vault, but Sasuke and Naruto only ever used that for their home and groceries. They needed to earn their own money to use for their own things. That was their agreement.

Smiling fondly at his once favourite student, Iruka nodded before addressing his student. "That sounds great Naruto. I get off here later tonight, so how about we go get ramen for supper?"

Naruto nodded quickly and was about to speak when the Hokage's door suddenly burst open and a small boy ran in shouting at the top of his lungs with a shuriken in his hand drawn back for a throw. "This is it old man, get ready for a fight!"

The Hokage just sighed and looked down in embarassment. 'This is the third time today ... he's really becoming restless.'

Before the small boy could release the shuriken though, he tripped on his long blue scarf and face planted straight into the wooden floor of the Hokage's Office with a clean 'smack'. He quickly jumped back up while rubbing his now red face to try and sooth the burning pain, before glancing at the only person near him and pointing an accusing finger at him. "It was you! You tripped me!"

Quicker than he could react, he was bopped on the head by a fist before he was pulled up by his collar and was face-to-face with the blond haired jinchuriki and was staring into a lone azure orb. "I didn't trip you, you lowsy brat! You tripped over your own two feet." Getting a better look of the boy from this position, he noticed the boy had brown hair and black eyes with a small chip in one of his teeth. He was wearing a yellow shirt with the Konoha symbol emblazoned in red on the front, with grey shorts and a long blue scarf. He also had on a weird looking grey helmet with an orange frowning face on the right side, a red circle on the left and a hole at the top to allow some hair to stick through.

Another loud bang was heard at the Hokage's door as a Jounin came bashing through. He was wearing sunglasses and had his hitai-ate wrapped around his head like a bandana, as well as wearing the standard Konoha shinobi outfit. "Honourable Grandson, there you are. Why did you run off-" Before he could continue he looked on in horror as his precious student was being held up by 'the demon'. "Do you know who it is that you are abusing Naruto?! That's the Honourable Grandson of the Sandaime Hokage! And I demand that you unleash him this instant."

Konohamaru looked back to the boy in front of him and smirked. 'That's right. I'm the honourable grandson of the Sandaime. I can't wait to see the surprised look on his face ...' He frowned though when he saw the blond's eye narrow and cried out in pain when a fist connected with his head once again.

"I don't care who this brat is," he said calmly as he narrowed his blue eye at the boy. "You could be the Daimyo's son for all I care." Dropping the boy with an audible thud, he turned back to the Hokage and took a deep breath before waving two fingers at him. "I'll see you later Ojiisan, and I'll see you at Ichiraku's tonight Iruka-sensei." He turned tail out of the Hokage's Office and made his way back to the streets below.

'Whoa ... that guy's different than the rest of the people here. He didn't care that I was the Hokage's grandson ...' He got a faraway look on his face and began thinking about the blond haired ninja that was showing him up a while ago.

"I'm so sorry Hokage-sama. I will try to keep better watch over the Honourable Grandson from now on." He straightened his glasses with his middle finger proudly as he looked on at the Hokage. "He is coming along splendidly by the way. He's on his way to becoming a fine candidate for Hokage, isn't that right Honourable Grandson?" Ebisu looked to his left where Konohamaru was sitting not too long ago before going white eyed and losing his cool once again.

Clearing his throat, Hiruzen sighed before he pointed towards the door. "I think he's gone after Naruto, Ebisu. You should try and keep a better watch on him," chided the Hokage as he picked up his pipe and took a long puff from it.

Ebisu just nodded frantically at their village's leader before standing ram-rod straight and getting ready to leave after Konohamaru. "Y-yes Hokage-sama, I will do my best." With that being said he calmly walked out the office and closed the door, and, once he was out of sight and had closed the door completely, dashed madly for the stairs and went out to look for Konohamaru. 'I must find the Honourable Grandson before that demon can corrupt his innocent mind.' With new resolve he moved off even faster.

**(With Naruto)**

Naruto was walking with his hands in his pockets down another bustling street of Konoha and was inwardly groaning. He was being followed by some brainless tac that was doing a terrible job at pulling off a disguise of a rock. The rock the person was disguised as was square in shape and had two eye holes in it that were extremely misplaced. He also had a long stream of blue material trailing along from the back.

Rounding a corner, he did a quick **Shunshin (Body Flicker)** backtracking a few metres before he was a little ways behind the 'rock'. Walking up behind it, he lifted up the box before glaring down at the boy seemingly hidden underneath. "Why are you following me brat? I thought I had made it pretty clear that I didn't want anything to do with you?"

The boy underneath got up onto his feet and glared straight back at the towering blond as he walked up to him and looked straight up at his mask covered face. "Hey, my name's not brat, it's Konohamaru!"

"Well **_Konohamaru_**, why are you following me?"

Looking down at the ground, Konohamaru gathered himself before looking back up with a soft gaze set on the blond. "Well, you treat me differently. Everybody always looks at me and only sees 'The Honourable Grandson of the Sandaime Hokage', and nobody ever calls me by my name. It's such an easy name to remember, but they'd rather call me 'Honourable Grandson'. I just want to be acknowledged for being me, Konohamaru Sarutobi, and you acknowledge me. That's why I want you to train me boss." The small boy twiddled his thumbs as he absent mindedly-kicked at the dirt beneath his feet.

Naruto's glare softened as he continued to listen to Konohamaru's story. 'He's just like me, except, at the same time, it's completely different. Nobody acknowledges him for being him, but rather as Honourable Grandson.' He looked back down at the boy with an eye smile and gave him a thumbs up. "You know what Konohamaru, I'll definitely help you out. That's a promise, dattebayo."

Smiling widely at his new 'boss' they set off together towards a training field to begin on Konohamaru's training. "So, what are you gonna teach me boss? A super cool jutsu? I need something to take down Old-Man Hokage." He was frothing at the mouth at the prospect of a new jutsu. Something that would be able to take down the Hokage. Once he took down the Old Man, then they'd have to give him the seat of Hokage and they'd have to acknowledge him.

Taking a moment to think on the question the boy asked him, he smirked behind his mask before snapping his fingers and looking down at the brown-haired youth walking along side him. "I've got just the jutsu for you. It's a jutsu I developed myself in the Academy, and although I don't use it anymore due to the nature of the technique, it works wonders against a certain 'type' of male, which the Hokage just so happens to fall under." He remembered the first time he had to use that jutsu against the old man. It brought up some bad memories as he thought back to when he stole the Scroll of Seals, but let that train of thought drop.

They stopped in a clearing that was surrounded on all sides by trees and moved over to a long wooden log that was placed flat along the ground as an impromptu seat. "Okay, this place is perfect." Turning to his 'student', Naruto formed the Ram seal and gathered some chakra. **"Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu)."** He was momentarily covered in a puff of smoke before most of the smoke disappeared, revealing a blond nude woman in a seductive pose with white smoke covering her more 'feminine' features. "So Konohamaru, what do you think?" She blew a kiss at said boy before winking seductively and transforming back into Naruto.

Konohamaru had stars in his eyes. This was the first time someone was teaching him a jutsu, and he didn't care what it was, if Naruto said it would take down the Hokage, then he believed him. "That was amazing Boss! And you developed this jutsu? You must be some kind of genius or something."

Naruto blushed under the praise and scratched the part under his nose in pride, thankful that his mask kept Konohamaru from seeing the worst of his red cheeks. He had to keep up appearances for his growing fan-base after all. "Thanks Konohamaru. Okay, so to perform this technique, you're going to want to gather your chakra and focus on the form that you want to transform into, constantly maintaining the chakra output. I took the liberty of bringing my old 'research' with, so read up and once you've got an idea, get started." He threw some magazines down onto the floor in front of Konohamaru before he took out his own book on sealing and continued from where he left off.

"Okay Boss, I'll get right to it." He saluted to Naruto and sat down cross legged before opening up the first magazine and beginning his training.

After four hours of getting the mental image prepared and practising the technique over and over again, his training finally proved fruitful as he turned into a sexy brunette with flowing brown hair and a tight form fitting cocktail dress that showed off her perfectly round curves and came to just below her hips, revealing the white material of her underwear underneath Her breasts were rather large, and were seemingly popping out of the small dress as she leaned forward, showing them off even further. "What do you think Boss? I think I finally got it down," Konohamaru asked Naruto in a sexy woman's voice.

Naruto looked up from his sealing book and grinned under his mask, the smile stretching out his mask somewhat. He gave his student's form a couple of once-overs and nodded his head approvingly. "You seem like you've finally gotten it down Konohamaru. Well done. This technique is a variation of the **Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu),** so you just learned your very first jutsu that you would've had to learn once you got into the Academy. You're already ahead of the rest of your class... when you get there, of course."

Konohamaru's womanly form was clouded in a puff of smoke for a couple seconds before a thoroughly exhausted Konohamaru emerged, flopping uncerimoniously onto the ground before he let out a long sigh. "That really took it out of me Boss. All this training has me beat."

Before Naruto could answer however, they were interrupted by the arrival of a very irate Ebisu. "Honourable Grandson, thank goodness I've found you! Who knows what **_he_** must have been polluting your mind with while you've been with him," Ebisu spat in a very pompous manner while absent-mindedly pushing up his glasses with his middle finger.

"But Ebisu-sensei," began Konohamaru, coming to Naruto's aid, "he taught me a jutsu that I would need to learn when I get to the Academy. The **Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu)**." Konohamaru brought his hands up into the Ram seal before he promptly transformed back into the lovely brunette from earlier. "What do you think Ebisu-sensei?" the transformed Konohamaru cooed out as she winked at him.

Ebisu was wide eyed at the fact that Konohamaru had leared an Academy grade ninjutsu in just one afternoon, but momentarily lost his poise as a small trickle of blood dripped down his nose upon resting eyes on the figure Konohamaru transformed into. "Oh my ... What delinquincies have you been exposed to with that boy?" Ebisu cried out in abject horror. What had that boy done to taint the Honourable Grandson's pure and innocent mind! This was preposterous.

'Seems like we have ourselves a closet pervert,' mused Naruto in thought with a growing grin, eyeing the thin trail of blood oozing from the Tokubetsu Jounin's nose. He had told himself that he would not use this jutsu in battle ever again, but he wanted to demonstrate to Konohamaru just how effective it could be and he had the perfect test subject here.

Konohamaru transformed back into his original self and frowned upon seeing his sensei still standing. That jutsu was strong enough to take down the Hokage, his grandfather, right? So why didn't it do anything to this man in front of them? "Why didn't the jutsu work and take you out," he cried out in annoyance, watching as his sensei pushed up his glasses once again with a victorious smirk on his face and wiped his nose clean with his sleeve.

"Please," he answered sarcastically, still holding his middle finger on his glasses, "I am an elite Jonin, I do not succumb to childish tricks such as those." Truth be told, he was using all of his will power to not pass out and lose control of his emotions. That was most probably one of the sexiest women he had ever seen, and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't enjoyed it somewhat. But he was an elite Jounin, placed directly under the order's of the Sandaime Hokage to train his Honourable Grandson in the ninja arts. He had to be better than some childish trick.

'Oh yeah?' thought Naruto with a challenging smirk, before he formed the cross hand seal.** "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)."** Twenty Naruto's popped into existence all around the elite Jounin, positioning themselves in a perfect circle. Even if this was a jutsu Naruto no longer used, he still created a jutsu that would work on pretty much every male ninja of this village.

"Kage Bunshins ... that is indeed impressive, but nothing I can't handle," stated Ebisu, lowering himself slightly into a taijutsu stance. He was surprised of the skills of the demon, but nonetheless, he kept his composure and readied himself for a fight.

All the clones brought their hands up into the Ram seal before they all chanted the name of the jutsu and enveloped themselves in a puff of smoke. **"Haremu no Jutsu (Harem Jutsu)."** Before the smoke could even clear, Ebisu found himself being grabbed, groped, felt, pulled on, pushed against, rubbed up on and grinded by twenty nude blonde woman with voluptuous bosom's and perfectly shaped bodies, moaning and grunting sexually as they man-handled the elite Jounin.

Being the closet pervert that he was, this was just way too much for Ebisu as his nose began to bleed profusely before it gushed and shot him off into the wooded tree line, knocking him out with a smile on his face and stars in his eyes.

Konohamaru was awed at the sight of his sensei being defeated so easily, and now saw first hand, from its creator, how deadly this jutsu was. This was definitely the jutsu he needed to take down his grandfather; there was no doubt about it now.

"Okay Konohamaru, I'm off. I've still got places to be and things to do, so I'll be seeing you around another time," drawled Naruto as he dusted himself down.

"But what about my training Boss?!" cried Konohamaru while throwing his arms in the air. "You're supposed to be my new sensei."

Naruto laughed before he ruffled the boy's hair. "How can I be your new sensei when I've got my own Genin team and missions starting tomorrow? I agreed to help you out and that was it. You're on your own now brat."

Konohamaru was staring at the ground at his feet, his hands balled into fists, trembling at his sides. He stuck out a hand towards Naruto and pointed an accusing finger at him before speaking in a softer voice than before. "From now on Boss, you're not my sensei anymore. From now on, we're rivals... rivals for the seat of the next Hokage."

Naruto rolled that thought around in his head for a while, seemingly mulling it over. "Rivals, huh? Rivals for the position of the next Hokage? I like that. But if you're gonna want any chance at taking me on for that seat," started Naruto as he began walking away from Konohamaru. "Then you better start training, because your hundred's of years too early to take me down."

Before he left the clearing, he looked over his shoulder back at the boy still standing in the clearing and gave him a genuine smile that strained his mask a little. "The next time we meet on the battle field, it'll be for the position of Hokage, dattebayo. Good bye Konohamaru. I'll see you later." With a two finger salute, Naruto was gone in a swirl of leaves, leaving behind a content Konohamaru and an extremely 'happy' Ebisu.

**(Hokage Tower - Hokage's Office)**

Sarutobi Hiruzen was sitting at his desk with his tell-tale pipe in his mouth and his crystal ball perched on a cushion on his desk. He was smiling softly at the scene that he had just watched with Naruto, his surrogate grandson, and Konohamaru, his actual grandson. 'Thank you Naruto-kun. I think you're one of the first people to actually call Konohamaru by his name, besides me of course, and you are the only one who could understand how much he appreciates it.'

He continued to watch before he frowned deeply and took his pipe out his mouth. "But that jutsu of his ... there's no doubt in my mind that that **Haremu no Jutsu (Harem Jutsu)** of his is an S-rank technique. I will have to lable it as a kinjutsu from this day forward," he stated with extreme seriousness, while pulling out a scroll and beginning to write furiously.

Three sweat drops formed in the Hokage's Office, momentarily revealing the three hidden ANBU stationed to guard their Hokage. 'Hokage-sama can't be serious,' thought one of the ANBU.

'What a despicable jutsu! If I ever find that brat I'll castrate him!' roared a purple haired ANBU inside her head, her hand absent-mindedly grabbing her sword's hilt and squeezing tightly on it.

**(With Naruto)**

The sun was lowering and it was starting to near late afternoon. 'Okay, so now that that's over, I have a bit of time to spare before I meet Iruka-sensei at Ichiraku's ... maybe I should pull a quick prank,' he thought evilly while hunching forward, letting out a sadistic cackle while rubbing his hands together, freaking out the immediate populous around him that weren't already glaring at him. 'Nah, it's not worth it at the moment. I promised Ojiisan I would stop after I became a Genin.'

He carried on walking before he stopped at a shop that had a small sign reading, 'Higurashi Weapons'. The blond furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before looking around at his current location. He noticed he was in a part of Konoha that he hadn't ever been to before. He also noticed that he didn't get too many glares from the people walking around, suggesting he was in an area populated mostly by shinobi.

At least there were some people around this village who actually knew he wasn't the Kyuubi and that he was actually keeping the Biju at bay with the seal. He looked back at the shop thoughtfully before deciding it couldn't hurt to take a look. He had some time to spare, so why not.

He entered the shop with the jingling of a bell and looked to the left at the cashier' counter to find it empty. "Welcome to Higurashi Weapons ..." he heard an oddly familiar feminine voice call out from a door leading to the back of the shop, filing that away for when he saw her. "... I'll be right out, so have a look around so long."

Complying with the woman's advice, he shoved his hands into his pockets and started to look around through the shelves of weaponry. He was quite amazed and impressed at the same time with the amount of weapons and all the different types that were sporting the shelves. Out of all the shinobi weapon's stores he'd been to, there was never such a variety. It had him salivating behind his mask.

You obviously had your garden variety kunai, shuriken, exploding notes and military ration pills' packs. Then there were variations for the exploding notes that came in balls as well as pouches, along with flash bombs. Moving along further he noticed several boxes of makibashi and senbon needles, never really seeing those used before by a ninja, although he had never been on a mission yet so that could be why.

There were various grades of ninja wire, nail files, wireless headsets, scythes, nunchaku, giant shurikens, crossbows, fuma shuriken ... the list just dragged on, not to mention all the weapons that Naruto had never even seen before in his life, not knowing the names of half of them.

"There beautiful aren't they?" spoke a girl's voice from behind Naruto, shaking him out of his stupor.

Turning around, he was pleasantly surprised to see that the voice had belonged to Tenten and that must mean that she worked here. He had to be sure though. "Tenten! Do you work here?" She nodded with a smile on her face and he put his hand to his chin in thought. "It's no wonder you're a weapon's expert, working at a place like this."

She smirked at him before gesturing around the store. "This is my family's store that I work at when I'm not training or out on a mission."

"That's so cool! I've never seen a shinobi store with this many weapons before, and with this much variety," Naruto exclaimed in awe once again, looking around the store breathlessly.

"Hehe, it definitely has its perks. So, back to business. You looking for anything specific?" she queried him, getting into business-mode. It amazed him that she could just switch from her normal personality to a deadly-serious business woman in an instant.

"Yeah, I was actually looking for a sword. I've been studying up on kenjutsu lately so I came here looking for something sharp," he said with an amused grin. He really didn't know much about swords, but that's what the owner's of the weapons shops were for, right?

Tenten just shook her head with a playful smile in play. "I take it you don't know to much about swords then? Well, lucky for you, I know everything about swords, so I'll be your brain for now." She directed him to a section at the back of the store where there was a wall that was plastered with different swords in all shapes and sizes.

"These are currently the only swords we have in stock at the moment," she muttered dejectedly with a sad look in her eyes.

Naruto just stared at her with a deadpan expression before he had a delayed face-fault. "The **_only_** swords you have at the moment. Tenten, there are about fifty swords on that wall. If this is the only stock you have at the moment I'd love to see what it looks like when you're fully stocked," he said sarcastically, his expression remaining completely dead.

"Oh, well, at full stock we fill up those three walls as well," she replied off-handedly, pointing to three walls the same size as the first one. She ignored another **_*THUD*_** on the floor and went back to the wall covered in blades. She took a quick look at Naruto's body as he picked himself up off the floor and quickly judged his height and build while muttering to herself.

Looking back at the wall, she moved around and grabbed three swords; a katana that had a blue sheath with light cloud patterns on it and a relatively long black hilt, with a blade of 73cm; a small tanto with a blade of 25cm that had a golden sheath and an ivory-white handle with the Leaf insignia engraved into it; and an uchigatana with a 60cm blade that had a black sheath with an orange Konoha symbol at the top with an orange hilt.

"Okay, so from your size, I've managed to reduce the possible fifty swords to these three here. Oh, and all the blades are made from chakra conducting metal, so you can channel chakra into them all." Tenten was hiding it well, but this was right up her alley and she was in her element. She was thoroughly enjoying herself and was inwardly giggling like a giddy school girl.

Naruto eyed the blades carefully and immediately threw out the idea of the tanto. That was just way too small and not his style. He was eyeing the last two intently with a hand on his chin as he looked at them with deep thought playing through his eye. On the one hand the katana was too long for him and he would grow into it eventually, but even once he did it would still be somewhat long for a sword but it would give him a longer reach, which would be a big advantage in battle. On the other hand, the uchigatana would be a perfect size for him now and when he grew up, it would essentially be a little smaller compared to normal katanas, but it would allow for faster slashes and better mobility, which is what he wanted.

He weighed the two quickly before unsheathing them both and feeling them in his hands. He did a couple of the katas he knew with the katana and then the uchigatana and he just couldn't deny it any longer. His eyes had been drawn to the uchigatana ever since Tenten pulled them from the wall to show him, and feeling them was the same. It just felt 'right' in his hand.

Tenten was looking on thoughtfully as she studied the blond's changing expressions. There wasn't much to see with his mask on, but his eye was telling her everything she needed to know. Naruto had been looking intently at the smaller uchigatana for a while, and she could see he had already made his decision, even if he didn't know it yet. Call it a weapon specialist's intuition.

She was also quite surprised to see that he could already perform some of the basic katas. She knew he said he wanted to take up kenjutsu, but she figured he was going to buy a sword first before he began training in it. He was no master, and you could see the obvious flaws in his stance and movements, but if this was his first time picking up a sword, then she was impressed. She noticed him put down the katana and grip firmly on the uchigatana before resheathing it and and turning back towards her. She couldn't resist a wide smirk. "I knew you'd pick the uchigatana in the end. It was written all over your face and in your body language. Even if you didn't realise it yet."

He smiled brightly at her, his brow furrowed in slight confusion. "Yeah, this one just feels right, I'm not sure how else to explain it, y'know." Tenten nodded her head in understanding. She had had the feeling before. It was almost like a bond between ninja and blade, if she had to explain it. "So," began Naruto as he held up the weapon in his hand. "How much for this uchigatana Tenten? This one definitely feels right and I'll be damned if I leave here without it, dattebayo."

Tenten giggled at his antics before composing herself once again and moving them toward the cash registers. On their way there, Naruto walked passed another bladed weapon that caught his eye and he could distinctly remember seeing a weapon like that before. He stopped suddenly and stood infront of the weapon before he picked it up and began examining it. It was dual wielded in the package as far as he could see.

"Those are trench knives," Tenten stated from beside Naruto, looking at the weapons he had in his hand. They were similarly styled to the Jounin Asuma Sarutobi's trench knives, but they were not the same. "They're not very conventional shinobi weapons, but something tells me you're not a very conventional shinobi." She smirked when she saw him scratch the back of his head sheepishly.

"What can I say? Conventional's not a word I'm all that familiar with. But these trench knives look pretty cool and I think they could be used in tandem with my taijutsu to give it an edge, y'know?"

Again, Tenten just had to smirk at the blond. His unorthodox nature as a shinobi and his infamous name as Konoha's Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja were well earned, as she had recently found out, being able to, at last, put a face to the name she'd heard around the village so often. She got behind the counter and smiled at him. "The uchigatana would usually be around 2000 ryo but because this one is chakra conductive it's 2500 ryo. The trench knives would also usually be 1000 ryo but they're chakra conductive as well, so that makes them 1500 ryo."

Naruto nodded enthusiastically before he fished out his gama-chan; his toad-shaped wallet; and grabbed the necessary funds. "Thank you for shopping at Higurashi Weapons!" she exclaimed with a fist pump in the air. "Sorry, I've been forced to do that by my father." She rubbed the back of her head in embarassment and tried her best to hide her red cheeks.

Naruto just waved her off with a casual shrug. "Don't worry about it Tenten. It was actually kind of cute," he replied truthfully with an eye smile. With his eye closed, he didn't notice her blush darken before she ducked behind the counter to grab a sealing scroll for his weapons and to hide her face from him for a while.

'What's wrong with me?! Come on Tenten, pull it together!' she thought while lightly slapping her red cheeks with her hands. She jumped back up and handed him the scrolls, trying to look him in the eye but failing miserably. "W-when your purchase exceeds 3000 ryo we throw in a free sealing scroll." She handed him the scroll and was careful not to brush against his skin.

"Thanks Tenten. That's actually perfect. Now I don't have to draw one up." He quickly sealed the two items he had into the scroll and and looked back up to Tenten. "Thanks again for helping me. You really do know your weapons. We should spar again some time," he suggested with smile, before he grinned mischeviously. "You could use the opportunity to **_attempt_** to take me down again, no?"

All embarassment forgotten, she looked at him with a challenging smirk before standing with her hands at her side. "I only made the mistake of underestimating you once, don't think you'll get that little handicap the next time we spar again."

"Oh," Naruto dragged out in mock surprise, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he grinned under his mask. "Is that what that was? A handicap?"

Tenten frowned furiously and was about to go white eyed when she heard the voice of her father from the back door and froze in her actions.

"Now now Tenten-chan, that is no way to talk to a paying customer," he chided her, looking on with a frown. He'd thought he taught her a little better etiquette when it came to politeness with the customers. He sighed heavily. He really shouldn't be so hard on her. She had to grow up without a mother, and there was only so much he could do for his daughter as a male.

"I'm sorry Ojiisan, it was my fault, don't blame Tenten. We were just having some fun after she helped me find what I was looking for." Naruto looked a tad-bit sheepish with a hand rubbing the back of his headed, but his words came out with the utmost respect and forgiveness. After butting in like that, Naruto half expected the older man to turn at him with a sneer or glare, something akin to hatred at least. But the man looked back at him thoughtfully before bursting out into laughter. Naruto akwardly laughed with while looking around and back at Tenten, silently trying to ask her what was so funny, only to receive a shrug in response.

After shaking off the laughter and regaining his composure, he turned back towards Naruto with a genuine smile on his face. "Ah, it's been a while since anyone's had the gall to call me that. What's your name kid?" He recognised the blond hair and the blue eye immediately. There was only one other person he knew that had those distinct features, but regrettably, he was already dead.

"Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, uh ... what was your name again?" he asked as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"Ah, yes, my name is Higurashi, and I'm Tenten's father." He smiled warmly down at the blond shinobi. 'You look so much like your father Naruto...'

"Nice to meet you Higurashi-ojiisan! Great shop by the way. I've never visited anything like it before," he relayed in his awe-filled voice. He still couldn't get over how damnably awesome this shop was. Definitely one of his new favourite hang-outs to-be. And the owners were nice to him as well. It was a nice change from the rest of the village's attitude. "Anyway, I'm sorry, but I have to cut my visit short. I'm supposed to be meeting someone now."

"Not to worry Naruto-san. I'm sure we will meet again soon. Until then," replied the elder man, placing a firm hand on Naruto's shoulder and shaking it lightly in a friendly gesture.

"Yeah, definitely Higurashi-ojiisan." He turned to Tenten and gave her an eye-smile-foxy-grin combo that stretched his mask slightly, outlining his beaming face. "You too Tenten. You definitely owe me a spar after your **_rude_** treatment of a paying customer," he said, grinning mischeviously while trying to get a rise out of the girl.

Said girl was finding it surprisingly hard to set her gaze on him and just nodded dumbly, retreating to the back of the shop which led to the back store room and forging area, as well as stairs to their connected-home on the second and third floor of the building. Naruto waved another good bye before he picked his scroll with the sealed goods back up off the floor and placed it into his vest pocket. He two finger saluted before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

The older man looked slightly stunned at his method of exit before he shook off his daze and smirked. 'He already knows that jutsu. Just as ambitious and audacious as his father and mother.' He shook his head in amusement before switching the 'Open' sign of the shop to 'Closed' and heading back up to his home. 'I think you two might have created a monster...'

**(With Naruto)**

Naruto appeared at his house in the Uchiha compound and quickly deposited his scroll in his room before he left once again, opting to take a stroll to Ichiraku's Ramen opposed to just Shunshining there as he still had ten minutes until he had to show up.

His mind wandered and he started to think up scenarios of possible missions that they would likely be asked to complete. His late adoptive father explained to him that there were many types of missions, ranging from escorting, to being a body guard, to assassinations; although the latter were left for the specialists and true elites of the village.

He cut that train of thought and started sending out pulses of chakra, trying to navigate through the village with his eyes closed and only by 'feeling' where he was going. He was sending out pulses in rapid succession, or what he thought was rapid succession. His control of the jutsu didn't allow him to send out pulses as often as he would have liked to send them out. Nevertheless, he didn't let that discourage him and carried on to Ichiraku's Ramen for supper with Iruka. This was his latest training method with the jutsu Iruka had taught him, constantly trying to lower the amount of chakra needed to feel out as far as he possibly could. This was doing wonders for his chakra control, although he didn't know that part. He let his mind wander again as he continued on to Ichiraku's.

**(Next Morning - Training Ground 3)**

It was yet another beautiful morning in Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)**. These seemed to be the only kinds of mornings that Konoha had. The sun was now just above the heads of the previous Hokage of the village, shining down brightly onto the village. There was a light dew still present over the field at Training Ground 3, creating a seemingly rainbow coloured ground cover as the sun's rays bounced off the thin sheet of moisture.

All Genin of Team 7 were present, each taking up a training post for a seat as they waited, as usual, for their late sensei. Sasuke, sitting against the post with his eyes closed, his thoughts wandering between his training and his revenge plans; Sakura, taking up her blond teammate's adivce, took up a book and was now reading up on being a Medical Ninja, an area of the ninja world that had suddenly interested her; and Naruto, nose deep in his fuuinjutsu book as usual, relatively close to the end of the beginners book. He had foregone his new sword for the moment, as he still wanted to have a training session with it to start with his kenjutsu studies. Reading and performing the actual katas were two very different things after all.

He would need to take this book back as soon as he was finished reading it and then start on the advanced book that his clone had gotten. After that one was done, there were a couple more that just had different sealing arrays for various seals and then the rest he would need to learn through good old trial and error or through a seal master. He didn't know of any seal masters, but all the books he had read so far were written by a man named Jiraiya. He would need to ask Hokage-ojiisan if he knew him and where to find the guy, although the named sounded vaguely familiar to him. He shook his head of that and continued with his book.

They were brought out of their personal happenings with a poof of smoke in front of them all, revealing their one eyed sensei eye smiling down at their seated forms. "Good morning everyone," he said cheerfully as he eye smiled at his cute little Genin. "Are you all ready to go and grab our first **_real_** mission?" He was using all his will power to not lose his cool and start laughing at their expectant faces. This is what made being a Jounin-sensei all worth it, was what he was told... and man were they right. This was just priceless.

"You bet Kakashi-sensei," answered an enthusiastic Naruto, holding enough enthusiasm for each member of his team. "This is what we've been waiting and training for. A chance to prove that we're capable as ninja of this village." His determined eye added the desired effect and the other Genin couldn't help but smirk and smile respectively.

"Nice speech Naruto. Now, since you're all so hyped to get our first mission under way, how's about we head on over to the Hokage Tower to go and grab our mission then?" he asked as he turned tail to head in that direction. 'I'm sure Hokage-sama would like to witness this as well,' he thought in amusement with a soft snicker.

**(Hokage Tower - Mission Briefing Room)**

"WHAT!" was the indignant cry of surprise and utter shock of the Genin of Team 7 as they all stared white eyed at the Hokage who was helping out in the mission's room today. They had just been given their choices for the available missions they were able to accept. Enough said...

The first time it was read out, all the Genin had failed to hear the **_'proper'_** missions that they could choose from over the reading out of these things called 'D-ranks'. They kindly asked for a repitition of their choices and were promptly left stupified and bewildered, leading up to the current situation.

"I'm sure you wouldn't make your dear old Hokage repeat himself a third time now, would you," said the Hokage in a sickeningly sweet voice as he used all his strength to keep from laughing. "I'm sure these newly promoted **_Genin_** who are now at the **_bottom_** of the proverbial food chain are not asking their village's leader to explain the situation **_again_**?"

The Genin all sensed a question in there while still processing the information regarding these 'D-ranks', somehow all managing to stifle a small nod while their brains were rebooting themselves from the influx of information.

"I think we'll take the fence painting Hokage-sama. My sweet little Genin seem to still be processing this. I think they might be broken," he mused, poking his blond haired student in the forehead, his student not moving an inch.

The Sandaime Hokage finally let loose a chuckle while reaching for the folder with the mission directive on it, as well as directions and instructions. "Here's the mission packet with all the details you need. And be sure to get those Genin of yours fixed. I'm sure I'll be hearing from Naruto-kun about this soon." He chuckled again when he thought of his blond grandson's reaction once he finally regained the ability to speak and move again. It was going to be a troublesome meeting, that was for sure.

Kakashi nodded and grabbed the mission packet, herding his still dazed and mentally-unconscious students out the door and to their required destination.

**(3 weeks later)**

**_"This is Cyclops, do you have eyes on the target?"_**

**_"Fangirl here," _**crackled Sakura's voice over the wireless headsets they were all currently wearing, **_"target is nowhere in sight."_**

**_"Brooder has spotted target, fifty metres North of current position, requesting assisstance to detain,"_** spoke Sasuke's voice, a hint of annoyance evident in his tone.

**_"Cyclops_****_2_****_ has target at forty metres South of current position, moving in to assist,"_** said Naruto, moving with utmost stealth as he stalked their target.

**_"Assist confrimed, moving in. And can someone explain to me again why we let each other choose our codenames?"_** asked Sasuke rhetorically, his annoyance once again evident in his tone. He was clearly not happy with Kakashi-sensei's codename for him.

**_"Cyclops and Fangirl approaching as support from East of your position. And it was all part of building team spirit,"_** replied Kakashi casually, his eye smile translating through the headset, while moving through the trees with Saskura moving alongside him.

Sasuke growled into his mic, muttering some obsecenities as he neared their target. Their target was in the middle of the clearing, and Sasuke could see Naruto getting ready on the other side of the clearing. Sasuke got into a low crouch and readied himself, waiting for the distraction that his blond brother was going to provide.

He didn't have to wait long, as four blonds came running out the trees from the other end of the clearing, causing their target to scare and begin retreating in the opposite direction. As the target neared Sasuke's location, it failed to notice the thin line of ninja wire running along the ground, and ran straight through the metal wire, tangling itself up in the restrictive wire.

It was promptly wrapped around its body by the ninja wire and hoisted into the air, hanging from a branch as it struggled futilely to escape. Naruto and Sasuke emerged from the treeline, with the former dispelling its clones as the latter moved to identify the target, pressing his index and middle finger onto the receiver to transmit his next message. **_"Red ribbon on the right ear. Target confirmed and detained."_**

**_"Great job guys. Let's get back to the Hokage Tower to return our detainee. Cyclops over and out."_**

**_"Understood,"_** they all chroused over their radios, moving at a swift pace to just be done with this mission. They had captured and recaptured this cat more than enough times, and if they had to do it again, they weren't sure if they'd be able to stop themselves from killing it. It was a pest and it liked to mess with them on a regular basis.

Once they arrived at the Hokage's Office to return the now identified Tora, they were greeted by a rather large plump woman, who just happened to be the wife of the Fire Daimyo, Madame Shijimi, as well as the owner of one Tora the cat. As soon as she laid eyes on her precious cat, she moved with the speed of a Jounin and grabbed the cat right out of Sasuke's hands.

"Oh, my precious baby! How's my favourite little fuzzy-wuzzy kitty cat?" She continued to smother the cat with unwanted affection, almost driving the male Genin to want to feel sorry for the poor cat. Almost.

'No wonder that poor cat runs away all the time,' thought Sakura sympathetically. 'She get's smothered and squashed by its owner like that all the time. I think I would have run away as well.'

'Stupid cat,' thought Naruto, getting a sadistic grin on his face beneath his mask. 'It deserves it for all the times it scratched my mask and for all the trouble its given us.'

Madame Shijimi quickly paid for the mission and left, leaving Team 7 with the Hokage and some Chunin once again.

The mood and atmosphere suddenly got a lot colder as Kakashi asked for another mission and the Sandaime began listing them, from fence painting, to weeding of someone's garden, to repairing of someone's roof, to the delivering of someone's groceries. These missions were not what they signed up for and the were ready to actually start with proper missions. They just needed their sensei to know as well.

"How about ..." begun Kakashi, only to be rudely interrupted by Naruto who uncharacteristically lost his cool.

"No! No more D-ranks Kakashi-sensei! We've been doing D-ranks non-stop for the past three weeks, and we just can't take it anymore. We're ready for a C-rank Kakashi-sensei, just ... just give us a chance," he finished slowly, regaining some of his composure while rubbing the back of his neck in embarassment over the small outburst. His old personality had started shining through now that he was making new friends. It wasn't just him and Sasuke anymore.

Kakashi looked on thoughtfully before giving them an eye smile. "Well, you guys have completed the required number of D-ranks to move up to a C-rank, so I don't see why not. I've seen all your abilities first hand and you guys are more than capable of handling yourselves." He turned back to the Hokage with an eye smile as he dug his hands into his pockets. "Please give us a list of your C-ranks available Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen looked doubtful about sending Team 7 on a C-rank. They were still newly minted Genin, but in the end, it was the Jounin's responsibilty to look out for his team and to decide when they were ready or not. He didn't have much of a choice here, and if he said no, Naruto would be livid ... but such was the life of the Hokage. Sending teams out on missions that could most likely result in someone's death, or not sending teams out because they just weren't ready. These were all decisions that the Hokage had to make.

"Well Kakashi, if you truly feel that they are ready, then I really cannot be the one to hold you as well as your students back." Naruto's eye widened after hearing that and he was ready to jump and shout out to the world, but remembering where he was and how he was expected to behave, he refrained; but only for now. "We have a border patrol mission on Hi no Kuni's **(Land of Fire's)** and Kaze no Kuni's **(Land of Wind)** shared border, an escort mission to Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**, and a delivery mission to Kusagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Grass)**."

Kakashi took on a thoughtful look while eyeing his Genin intently. 'I doubt any of them have ever seen the sea before ...' Looking back at the Hokage, he eye smiled and stepped forward. "We'll take the escort mission to Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** Hokage-sama."

"Very well. Send him in," he shouted out towards the door of his office. Looking back at Kakashi, he handed him the mission packet with all necessary information needed. "Everything you need to know will be in there. You will be escorting a master bridge builder by the name of Tazuna back to his country in Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves) **..."

Before he could continue, the door opened to reveal a large grey-haired, bespectacled man with a beard and dark eyes. He was wearing a v-neck shirt with an obi, pants and a pair of sandals. He was carrying a towel around his neck as well as a pointed straw hat that was hanging around his neck with a string. He reeked of alcohol, and was clearly a drunk if the smell and the bottle of sake he was holding were any indication. I mean it was 9 in the morning for Kami's sake!

"Hey, these are a bunch of snot nosed brats, how are they supposed to protect-..." Before he could finish or even blink, a kunai pinned his hat into the closed door behind him, the attached string adding some uncomfortable pressure to his neck as it strangled him around the neck slightly.

"Don't underestimate us old man," spoke an eerily low voice from Tazuna's left ear, prompting said man to glance to the left and see the blond haired Genin that was standing in front of him a second earlier. "Deception is one of a ninja's greatest tools ... you'll do well to remember that."

Once he was finished speaking, the pressure from the string around his neck was lifted and he saw the blond standing back at his previous position with the other two 'runts'. He quickly brought his bottle of sake up to his mouth and downed a hefty amount before he wiped his mouth and beard clean from any spillage. "My name is Tazuna and I need to get back to my country so that I can finish building a bridge there that will change our lives. I trust you will be able to get me back there in one piece?" he asked a little nervously, glancing at the blond from the corner of his eye. But the blond's mood had completely changed and that threw him off slightly, prompting him to take another long sip of his sake.

"You bet we will Tazuna-ojiisan. You just leave everything to us." Naruto eye smiled at Tazuna and gave him a reassuring thumbs up, acting as if he hadn't just been called a brat or threatened the man. "We'll protect you with our lives, dattebayo."

Tazuna was still skeptical, but decided there was nothing else he could do. They had a Jounin on their team, so they should be able to get him back to his home country in one piece. Hopefully.

"Okay team," began Kakashi with mock enthusiasm as he turned to his team with a serious expression. "You have one hour to pack, and then meet back up at the village gates to depart for the mission. We leave in one hour. Move out." All the Genin departed the Hokage's Office with haste, leaving Tazuna to get escorted to the gates by one of the attending Chunin.

**(One Hour Later - Village Gates)**

Tazuna, Kakashi and Sakura were all waiting at the gates for the arrival of their last two team mates, Naruto and Sasuke, who were both unfortunately running late. Tazuna was busy drinking up the remnants of his last bottle of sake, Kakashi was giggling perversely while nose deep in his smut, and Sakura was reading into her newest fascination, the art of the medical-ninja.

She decided that once they returned from this mission, she was going to go to the hospital and join the medical corps training program that was due to begin soon. She could do basic first aid, and was quite proficient with that, but she wanted to learn medical ninjutsu and become a proper field medical-nin, so that she could always help her team mates if anything ever happened.

Looking back at the walkway coming from the village, she saw two people approaching from the distance, and thankfully it was Naruto and Sasuke. That meant that they didn't have to wait any longer and that they could finally get going. She noticed though that Naruto seemed to have two bladed weapons strapped to his belt on the left hand side, and he also didn't have his chakra blade anymore. It seemed that they were going all out for this mission. Her bag was also packed to the brim with ninja tools and weaponry incase of any situation, so she couldn't really point fingers. She also had some clothes and beauty products essential for a girl, but nobody needed to know about that.

Seeing that all the members of his squad were here, Kakashi snapped his book shut, and turned to his students. "Okay gang, now that we're all here, let's get moving to Nami no-"

"Alright! This is my first time outside of the village, I can't wait! Let's go everybody!" shouted Naruto with his fist pointed into the air as he started walking. He waited a couple seconds before turning around with a sheepish look on his face and getting back behind Kakashi. "Sorry Kakashi-sensei, you can, uh, carry on." Damn it! Why did he keep breaking personality?! Once second he was as calm as an ocean breeze, and the next he was raising his voice and carrying on like some kind of lunatic. Being exposed to new friends and all was really starting to rub off on him.

"Why thank you Naruto, how considerate of you," Kakashi replied with an eye smile, his tone of voice just dripping with sarcasm. "As I was saying, let's get moving to Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**. It's not too far from here to the coast and we can easily make it there by noon. Tazuna-san here says that he has transportation for us from the coast to Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**, so we should make it to Tazuna-san's home by tonight the latest, but that's only if we get moving now."

All three Genin nodded their heads and quickly made a double check of their backpacks before strapping them back on and moving with their sensei and client towards the coast.

* * *

**AN: That's that chapter guys, let me know what you think and tell me if there are any errors that need fixing so I can tend to them. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and i don't have a beta, so I try to write these up as error-free as i possibly can, but i get a little excited sometimes, which speeds up my typing which in turn caused errors which in turn grates on my perfectionism (I just made up my own word. Why you ask? I'm not entirely sure, but it feels right, so I'm sticking with it. And ignore that Shino verbal tic) :D**

**Sorry, I'm starting to ramble and write unecessary things that don't need to be here. Anyways, as always, I implore you to review. I like to hear your feedback-... and that reminds me! I'm busy adding some more stuff to chapter one so that his child hood years don't fly by so quickly. I'm not going to be adding much though, as like i've said before, the beginning is more just to set the scene and tone of the story, but there will still be some flashbacks going back to his childhood later on in the story. Again, rambling, apologise, thanks for reading, until next time ...**

**Justin**


	6. To the Land of Waves

**AN: Hey guys, sorry for the delay on this chapter, but i was bombarded with a ton of work from Varsity last week and had a bit of catching up to do, so i couldn't write as often as i wanted to. Nevertheless, here is the next chapter, and i hope you guys enjoy it. **

**Also, the next few chapters will be coming out slower than usual because i have tests coming up soon, but as soon as they're done, i can start writing up with the speed i once had :D**

**I know many people are complaining about me writing up the story and going through boring arc's from canon, but i'm trying my best to change them up slightly because i will be changing things by the time the Chunin Exams come. And some of these arc's were necessary for character development, and so forth, so please bare with me :D I was also writing this story so that people who aren't as familiar with Naruto would be able to understand, so keep that in mind ;) Anyhow, on to the story...**

**Disclaimer: I do not nor ever will own Naruto ... at least I think I won't. Naruto and the aspects of Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto**

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**Chapter 6: To the Land of Waves**

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Their journey to Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** had begun, with Naruto and Sasuke taking up the front, Sakura walking with their client in the middle and Kakashi taking up the rear of the formation. Their trip was pretty uneventful so far, and there was nothing out of the ordinary as they moved at a swift but leisurely pace, fast enough to make good time, but slow enough to allow Tazuna to keep up with them.

Naruto was walking calmly with his hands in his pockets, his one azure eye scanning everything that they passed, as well as sending out random chakra bursts at certain intervals. Although he might look calm from an outside observer, Naruto was slightly on edge for his first time outside of the village. He wasn't scared, nervous or worried, just on the edge of his proverbial seat, not wanting to be taken advantage of if something did eventually happen.

Sasuke was pretty much of the same mind set as Naruto, walking calmly with his hands in his pockets, although this type of situation was what he had been preparing for. A real chance to test his skills against real opponents. His onyx-coloured eyes were scanning the area, and he would activate his Sharingan at various points to better scout out the surrounding areas they were moving through.

Sakura felt the most protected from her point in the formation, although she was by far the most worried. She couldn't help but feel that they somehow just weren't ready for this kind of mission yet, and she couldn't help but doubt her sensei's judgement of their individual skills. Sure she had recently started getting help with her training from Naruto and Sasuke, who would invite her over to their house at least three times a week for training, and sure she was doing really well with her medical studies, but she was still a nervous wreck, and glancing to his rear, her sensei seemed to notice.

"Don't worry Sakura," drawled Kakashi as he continued to read his smut while at the same time keeping aware of his surroundings. "Everything's going to be fine. You're more than ready for this type of mission." Seeing that she was still slightly doubtful, he closed his book and focused intently on her and their surroundings. "If it makes you feel any better, this is a C-rank mission, so that means that there is almost no chance of combat; and if any, it will be simple highway bandits, easy pickings for you guys."

Sakura seemed to perk up slightly after that, but Tazuna visibly flinched as a bead of cold sweat dripped down the side of his face, and not from the heat that was radiating in the atmosphere all around Hi no Kuni **(Land of Fire)**. His body stiffened in his stride, something that Kakashi didn't miss. He filed that away for later, maybe once they were on the boat and they could have a talk.

They continued walking for quite a while, moving over many small bridges when they came to a river flowing through Hi no Kuni **(Land of Fire)** and passing a couple of inns on there way. Unfortunately they couldn't stop due to their tight schedule, so they had to keep up the pace.

As they were walking down another road, they passed a small puddle of water that was on the side of the path. Kakashi noted the puddle of water and proudly saw that his three Genin had caught on as well and were already preparing what to do between themselves with the hand signing he taught them. He decided to let this one play out and see how well his students would handle the situation.

Once they had all passed the puddle, two figures slowly rose up from the water, both shinobi adorning metal gauntlets, one wearing it on the left hand, while the other was on the right hand. They were both rogue ninja from Kirigakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Mist)**, the Demon Brothers, according to their hitai-ate and their entrances into Konoha's bingo books.

They quickly descended upon the Jounin of the group, sending their clawed gauntlet's shuriken-linked chain at Kakashi. The chains quickly wrapped around Kakashi, and before he could attempt an escape, the Demon Brothers both pulled on their gauntlets that were holding the chains, mutilating Kakashi's body and sending all the bloodied remnants into a pile of dust.

"Kakashi-sensei!" shouted all the Genin at the same time, not believing that they had just witnessed their sensei killed right in front of them. They, along with their client, were staring wide eyed at the spot where their sensei was just standing. They weren't given long to mourn though as the Demon Brothers then charged at the remaining Genin after retracting their chains.

Sakura immediately retrieved a kunai and jumped in front of Tazuna, taking up a defensive stance. The Demon Brothers ran at their closest target, who just happened to be Naruto at the time. Unfortunately for Naruto, he still couldn't believe that his sensei had just been killed and was still dazed. The Demon Brothers capitalised on this and readied their gauntlets for an attack on Naruto's dazed form.

They drew their respective arms back and were about to strike out with their chains once again, when Sasuke jumped in between them and before they could attack, he sent his legs out in a split kick, knocking one left and one right. "Oi, Naruto, snap out of it! Pull yourself together!" shouted Sasuke as he got up from kicking the two Chunin away from each other. He wasn't going to get such an easy opening again, so he needed Naruto to focus.

This seemed to snap Naruto out of his daze and he gave his brother an apologetic look before righting himself and facing the Demon Brother that was on his left, while Sasuke faced the Demon Brother to his right. Both of the Demon Brothers disregarded them though and seemed to be going straight for Sakura, but upon closer inspection it could be seen that they were heading for Tazuna.

Naruto and Sasuke quickly got infront of Sakura and Tazuna on their respective sides, taking up defensive stances. Sasuke quickly pulled out two kunai in each hand and Naruto equipped both his trench knives, finding this the perfect situation to test them out in a real battle.

Naruto charged forward to meet his opponent as Sasuke did the same. The Demon Brother on Naruto's end, Gozu, reared his right arm back and prepared to scratch out at Naruto with his clawed gauntlet. As Naruto got within inches of the claw, he lowered himself onto his knees and slid at his opponent. He slashed with both knives at the Demon Brother's legs, managing a long but shallow cut. Gozu quickly jumped back to put some distance between him and the blond.

At the same time that Naruto was charging his target, Sasuke was moving at his Demon Brother, Meizu. He threw his first kunai at Meizu to distract him, which worked perfectly as Meizu brought his gauntlet up to deflect the kunai. Sasuke quickly got in front of the Demon Brother and spun on the ball of his right foot, slashing across Meizu's stomach with his kunai, scoring a decent cut. He then brought his left foot around and sent a roundhouse kick at Meizu's slashed stomach, hitting home and sending him skidding across the ground.

The Demon Brother groaned painfully as he got up from the kick and was thankful that the slash across his stomach was fairly shallow, nowhere near life threatening. "Agh, Gozu, these brats are beginning to annoy me," shouted Meizu across the clearing to his brother. "What say you we finish what we came here for Gozu?"

On the other side of the clearing, Gozu laughed evilly at his brother's words before he readied his gauntlet for an attack. "With pleasure Meizu." Both Demon Brothers rushed in again with more speed than before and reared their gauntlet wielding arms back again. Once they were pretty close, they thrusted their arms forward and released their shuriken chains straight at the torso's of their respective Genin.

The Genin were too close to dodge the chains completely and unfortunately got taken a little by surprise by the attack, both now sporting cuts along the sides of their stomachs. They had managed to jump into the air before being completely impaled, but once they were both in the air, Naruto and Sasuke realised the mistake they had made as the shuriken chain was now heading straight for Sakura and Tazuna. They both quickly began making hand seals and brought their fingers up to their mouths while aiming at the Demon Brothers before exhaling sharply. They just hoped this plan would work, because the result of using this jutsu would send them up further into the air from the force and would open them up for an attack while at the same time not allowing them to help on the ground.

**"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)."**

Two big balls of flames were sent crashing down with crushing force into the paths of the Demon Brothers. They were forced to stop and retract their chains as they watched the area they were about to be in get covered in flames.

The area around Sakura and Tazuna became covered in a thick cloud of dust that was kicked up by the jutsu's destructive force, and Naruto and Sasuke could only hope their plan worked. Once they both landed back on the ground and the dust cleared up, they found the Demon Brothers tied up to a tree with Kakashi-sensei standing over them and Sakura and Tazuna safely behind him.

"Kakashi-sensei yo-you're alive." choked out Naruto, his one eye wide with shock and disbelief. He must have substituted himself with a log as he was attacked. Looking back at the attack site, he noticed the cut up pieces of wood where there should have been pieces of Kakashi's body.

"Hehe, sorry about that Naruto, I honestly didn't mean to scare you," he said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle. "I just wanted to give you guys a chance so I could see how you handled yourselves in a real battle, and you guys did well. Great job Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura." Naruto shook off his daze and soaked up the praise, before noticing his sensei's serious look. "Also, I wanted to get a chance to see who their target was," he continued in a serious tone while looking towards a now profusely sweating Tazuna. "Was it just a battle between ninja, one village against another, or were they here for someone **_specifically_**," he mused rhetorically while tapping his chin and narrowing his eyes at their client. "Tazuna-san, it seems you were their target, although I can't help but recall nothing being said about ninja coming after your life in the mission briefing."

Tazuna was now sweating bullets while doing everything in his power to avoid Kakashi's piercing gaze. "I, I, I'm not sure what you're ... **_*gulp*_** what you're talking about." He could only take five more seconds of being hounded upon before he lost his resolve to play dumb and cracked, unable to keep it in any longer. "Okay, I'm sorry; I knew that there would be ninja after me!"

Kakashi's eye narrowed as he became a little pissed with this man withholding information that could put his Genin's lives at stake. They were supposed to be on a simple C-ranked escort mission, but with this latest addition and the fight they just had, it would probably get bumped up to a B or A-rank at least. If two rogue Chunin were just the first wave, then the second wave was going to be at least Jounin level. "Why would you keep this information from the Hokage when you could've been given a squad of three Chunin and a Jounin, which is what would have been ideal and more suited for this level of mission? Not to mention they would have been able to provide you better protection at the same time."

Tazuna sighed deeply before he took on a sad expression. "I suppose I should just tell you everything then." He slumped his shoulders a bit before taking another deep breath and looking up at them with sad eyes. "Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** was once a prosperous country that thrived with its sea trade. Not too long ago, a very rich and powerful shipping magnate by the name of Gato came to the country to, air quote, 'invest'."

"You mean Gato, the founder of Gato Company?" asked a wide eyed Kakashi. He had heard many tales of the, according to many, richest man in the Elemental Nations. He was just an ordinary business man, a simple civilian, and his wealth was extraordinarily large.

"The one and only," said Tazuna regretfully with a slight scowl on his face. "He may look like just a normal business man on the surface, but underneath that cover, he smuggles contraband and deals drugs. He has taken control of our harbour and is sucking our country dry of all its wealth. With all our money together we could barely afford this C-ranked mission."

Sakura gasped loudly. "That's horrible. How could he do such a thing?" she asked rhetorically. What kind of person would do something as terrible as this, and to an entire country to boot? He was just supposed to be a civilian, and if he wasn't participating in such evil acts, she might have been awed at that fact.

"That's why we're building the bridge," he said hopefully, his eyes reflecting the longing that he and his kinsmen felt. "With the bridge, we wouldn't need the ships for trade, and we could rid ourselves of Gato's clutches completely by allowing traders to enter the island via the bridge."

"And that's why Gato wants you out of the picture," added Sasuke with a thoughtful look, finally grasping everything that was going on. Tazuna nodded grimly. They would do anything to stop Tazuna from completing the bridge; that much was certain if they had already sent a couple of Chunin after him.

Kakashi sighed and raked his hand through his hair, now mentally exhausted. Whatever happened to getting a good old, peaceful, no-action C-ranked mission? Was that so much to ask for? "Now that we know the proper scope of this mission, we're obligated to return to Konoha, because, as I have already told you, we're just a team of Genin." Although he had seen how well his team of Genin had done against the Chunin that they encountered not too long ago, there would be stronger and much more threatening foes on the path that lay ahead. He had a responsibility to keep his team safe.

"We can't leave Kakashi-sensei," spoke Naruto, drawing everyone's attention and snapping Kakashi out of his thoughts. "You heard what's happening. We need to help these people, and I'm not backing down. I said we'd protect Tazuna and I never go back on my word, dattebayo." What this man was doing to Tazuna's home village was unforgivable, and somebody needed to take a stand.

The other Genin all smiled and turned to their sensei with similar expressions of confidence adorning their visages. "If that's the way you all feel ..." began Kakashi, seeing them all nod in the affirmative, he sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. "Then I guess there's no question. On with the mission."

Tazuna glanced down at Naruto and ruffled his hair kindly. "You know kid, I think we got off on the wrong foot. Thanks for keeping me safe and deciding to carry on with this mission. It means a lot."

"No problem Tazuna-ojiisan," said Naruto as he got out from under Tazuna's hand. Why did everyone always want to touch his hair? Was it really that great to touch?! Shaking his head, he looked back at the older man. "But like I said, I never go back on my word. Besides, this is just the right thing to do."

**"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"** A cloud of smoke expanded underneath Kakashi's grounded hand after he bit his thumb, using his blood to complete the jutsu. After the smoke had cleared, it revealed a small pug-like dog with brown fur and a dark brown snout and ears. He was wearing a blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji symbol on the back, with a Konoha hitai-ate on his head.

Everyone's hands went to their ears as they all winced from a bellowing squeal, courtesy of the kunoichi on Team 7. "Oh! What a cute little puppy!" she said with hearts in her eyes as she crouched down to the level of the pug. It was just sitting there while scratching its eye with its paw. 'How cute!' It was just asking to be picked up, but Sakura knew better than to just reach out and touch a foreign dog. **_'SHANNARO! We definitely need to get one of those! He's too cute!'_**

The pug slowly looked in her direction and moved towards her before stopping in front of her legs and leaning up against her knees, their noses almost touching. "Alright, listen here little girl. Don't you dare go around calling me some 'cute little puppy'," he said in a deceptively deep voice as he narrowed his eyes. "I am a ninken, and my name is Pakkun."

Sakura stared with lifeless expression on her face while not once taking her eyes off of the dog in front of her. 'Wait, what? Did he just... talk?!' Still crouching on her haunches, she shot backwards and fell on her rear as she shrieked in surprise and shock. What the hell kind of dog could talk? It was just unnatural.

"Ah, Pakkun, good to see you again," spoke Kakashi as he scratched his ninken behind the ears. He had raised his ninken from pups when he was still back in the ANBU, and he had trained them in the Ninja Art's, as far as it went for ninken. They were loyal to him, and he to them, and he loved them dearly.

"Yo Kakashi, long time no see," he said as he raised his paw to his summoner and shared a high five with him. He looked around and noticed the Genin standing around him, the bridge builder and the two tied-up Kirigakure Chunin lying on the ground. "So, what's up?" he asked as he looked back up at Kakashi.

Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a letter, before placing it gently in Pakkun's mouth. "I need you to take this letter to Hokage-sama. It will inform him of these rogue ninja here and what the status of the mission is. I need you to get it to him as fast as possible."

Pakkun saluted with his paw before turning to leave. "You can count on me Kakashi," he muffled out with the letter secured safely between his jaws. He leaped high into the surrounding forest before bolting off back towards Konohagakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Leaves)** with great speed.

After writing up a message and handing it to Pakkun, they continued on their journey to the coast where they would be meeting up with Tazuna's contact, the person who would ferry them across the ocean to Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**.

"Whoa ... so this is what the ocean looks like? And smells like?" Naruto closed his eye and took in a deep breath through his nostrils that were hidden behind his mask, revelling in the salty sea breeze. "It smells so nice here."

"There's my contact," said Tazuna, wasting no time in pointing out to the man who was waiting in a boat on the shore line. "His name is Kaji, and he's the one with the boat."

Kaji was a middle aged man with short brown hair and dark coloured eyes, wearing a pointy straw hat just like Tazuna's. He had a long sleeved outfit with the collar upturned.

Once on board the small boat, they proceeded to head out to the shore's of Nami. It would be about a two hour's boat ride, leaving plenty of time for Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi to read their respective books, something that was becoming a bit of a team habit.

Sasuke sighed. His entire team were a bunch of nerdy book worms. Two were studying while one was reading porn. He would be lying if he said he wasn't bored out of his mind. He looked to Tazuna at the back of the boat and frowned in thought. "Hey Tazuna-san, what's the conditions of the town in Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**?"

This question got the other three ninjas to look up from there books with thoughtful faces as well. They had all thought about that at one point or another, they just never decided to voice their thoughts. Tazuna looked ahead into the thick mist with a sad look on his face. He took off his straw hat and dusted it off, giving an exhausted sigh.

"The conditions are ... grim, at best. Gato's been sucking money out of this country for so long, the way most of the town is forced to live has become somewhat of a lifestyle. The food stores are always empty... and most of the shop owners have boarded up their stores already, unable to make a living. Orphans and homeless people litter the streets; each and every single one of them malnourished and starving; always looking for the smallest shred of food or clean water. Many have resorted to stealing in order to survive."

He ran a hand through his hair and turned his sad gaze to the boat's floor. "This town is suffering terribly under Gato's reign. This town ... is dying, and if something isn't done soon ..." He stopped there and took a moment to calm down. He didn't want to lose his family; his beautiful daughter, his grandson. He had already lost his son-in-law, and it had affected his entire family. He had to step up and not allow Kaiza's sacrifice to be in vain.

He looked to the right and allowed a sad smile to form, still holding the attention of all the ninja present. "That is why I have to finish the bridge," he said softly, gesturing his head in the direction of said structure that was just becoming visible through the mist. The ninja's eyes widened at the size of the bridge. It was a lot bigger than any of them had orignally thought it was going to be. It was truly a remarkable sight. "Whoa..." was the only coherent word the three Genin could utter at the sheer size of it.

Tazuna cleared his throat, reining their attention back towards him, ready to continue again. "I know that I withheld information that was important to the mission, but if you guys protect me until the bridge is complete, I will make sure to pay for the correct amount as soon as we can. Please ... for the survival of this village ... you're our last hope to ensure the bridge is completed. I need you... this country needs you."

Team 7 all wore expressions of sadness. They had no idea that this land was in as bad a condition as Tazuna had just described it. The treatment of these people and the degree of poverty in this country was enough to make them sick to the stomach.

Naruto turned around to face Tazuna and his one eye visibly softened. He allowed a soft smile to form under his mask as he stared at Tazuna's lowered head. "Don't you worry about a thing Tazuna-ojiisan. We'll help you free this city, no matter what it takes! Or die trying, dattebayo!"

"Easy there Naruto," started Kakashi as he sweat dropped at his blond student's exclamation. "That's just a bit extreme, don't you think?" He watched Naruto shake his head and sighed in exasperation. Sometimes ... Naruto could be a little too bodacious for his own good. 'But that was just how Minato-sensei was as well.' He smiled fondly at the blonde Genin before looking back towards their client. "He's right though Tazuna-san. We will see this mission through, no matter the cost. We give you our word as ninja of Konohagakure no Sato** (Village Hidden in the Leaves)**."

Tazuna smiled gratefully and chuckled softly. "You know, you ninja are a lot different than what I first thought you'd be like at first glance."

"Oh? How so?" asked Kakashi with mock-interest as he continued to read his book with the occasional snicker.

"When I first saw you guys, I thought my team of hired help was going to be a lazy one eyed scarecrow that reads porn, his blond-haired chibi double, an emotionless duck-butt-haired brood, and his pink-haired fan girl that speaks way too loud ..." he stated bluntly as he continued to stare straight at the floor of the boat with a sombre look in his eyes.

All of Team 7 dead panned and the 'pink-haired fan girl' as well as the 'blond-haired chibi Kakashi' formed tick marks on their foreheads, the former's being a lot more pronounced than the latter's, while Kakashi and Sasuke narrowed their eyes angrily.

"But ... you guys really proved me wrong," he said softly as he looked up at all of them and bowed low, shocking all the Genin. "And for that, I am truly sorry."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while smiling back at Tazuna. "Please don't bow to us Tazuna-ojiisan. We haven't helped you build the bridge just yet."

Tazuna chuckled again and smiled at the blond. The blond had really grown on him since they first met the day before. His admirable nature and selflessness reminded him a lot of Kaiza and what he stood for in the eyes of their home village. "I'll hold you to it then," he replied with a grin, placing his hat back on his head and tipping it forward at Naruto.

They all became quiet again as they waited for the boat ride to end. They were still in the middle of the thick mist and according to the sailor they still had about thirty minutes left before they reached the island. The fact that they were still so far out and had already been able to see the bridge from quite a ways back, only emphasised how far the bridge builder had come with the construction of the bridge.

Naruto put his book away and decided to rather keep an eye out for any threats as they neared the shore by sending out bursts of chakra with his echolocation jutsu. He could feel the workers moving around on top of the bridge beside them at least 100 metres away. He chuckled inwardly. He was becoming like a human sonar. It was slowly but surely taking less chakra each time to send out a burst further and further away. He could send it a bit further if he closed his eyes and meditated while doing it, but it always took too much time to get into a meditative state, and as much as he liked sitting still while reading, sitting still while meditating was positively boring.

He sent out another burst of his chakra and looked ahead to see that they were nearing a tunnel. They went in and were immediately bathed in the blinding darkness and deafening silence, the only sound coming from the water being pushed away by the sailor's oar as he rowed on. They continued for a long time before spotting a small light in the distance that slowly increased in size the closer they got. The exit was dead ahead, and they moved through the sheet of light, momentarily blinding themselves as their eyes adjusted to the bright rays of sunlight. Out of the mist covered tunnel and through to the other side, they entered what they thought must have been the village's harbour. It was sunny on this side of the tunnel, with the seagulls cawing and circling around the entirety of the area playfully.

It looked to be a peaceful place. But they soon noticed the absence of villagers and civilians moving around the docks and, unfortunately, quickly found most of them, lying around on the streets or walking around in tattered and destroyed clothing off to the sides of the village paths. The sight was truly despicable, and seeing the state of the villagers as opposed to hearing about it was completely different. It spurred the ninja on even more, giving them more reason to help Tazuna in his quest, seeing this beautiful harbour town in such hopeless despair.

They reached the shore and quickly disembarked the boat, Tazuna giving his long time friend and contact a quick goodbye before leaving to his house with the ninja that were escorting him. They still had quite a far way to go before reaching his house at walking speed, two hours give or take. It was late afternoon so they would definitely make it back well before night fall.

They continued walking to Tazuna's home, leaving the small harbour town to move towards the main village in Nami no Kuni** (Land of Waves)** where the bridge was located as well as Tazuna's home. They walked down a path that connected the main village to the smaller harbour town. It was a little misty, but it didn't impair their vision at all. Even if it did, in Naruto's case with his sonar abilities and Kakashi with his nose, you didn't need your eyes in order to see ahead of you.

Naruto sent out a burst of chakra and his one eye snapped open as something small and unfamiliar reached his senses from in the distance. He withdrew a kunai and flicked his wrist, sending the kunai whizzing through the air into the bushes a ways ahead. The kunai embedded itself into the tree where it was thrown with a dull thunk, Kakashi moving quickly to the area to see what his student had spotted. But what he found confused him. 'A snow rabbit? What is a snow rabbit doing here? It's the middle of summer, its fur should be brown. Unless ...'

Naruto sent out another burst of chakra once they were all at the sight where he threw the kunai. Sakura was just about to berate him for almost killing a poor defeseless rabbit when he sensed something coming towards them at a fast speed. "Everybody get down!" shouted Naruto at the top of his lungs, grabbing Tazuna's shoulders as he shoved him onto the ground while Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi all hit the deck as well.

A massive blade came flying through the air over the area where their heads were a mere second ago and embedded itself within the wood of a tree behind them. They slowly got back up off the ground and looked around in the direction the blade came from for the person who threw it. Naruto sent out a burst of chakra and swung his head around back at the tree the blade was in. "Behind us!" he shouted, drawing his two trench knives as well as the attention of his team mates and Tazuna.

Kakashi looked up at the blade and his eye widened for a second before he narrowed it and glared at this new obstacle, the implications of said obstacle quite troublesome to say the least. "Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja and Kirigakure no Kijin **(Demon of the Hidden Mist)**. And I see you brought your lackies with for another beat down ... The Demon Brothers." Kakashi mentally clicked his tongue as he saw those two again. He was sure that Pakkun would have made it to the Hokage on time, so that meant the fault was ANBU's. He would have to make a visit there when he got back to make sure they knew they needed to up their response time.

Turning his head back up to the blade, he focused on the Jounin standing in the middle. The man was tall and looked to be quite muscular. He was shirtless with mimetic wrist warmers on his arms with matching leg warmers. He had bandages covering the lower half of his face and he wore his hitai-ate sideways on his head.

The Genin all narrowed their eyes as well as they spotted everyone on top of the blade, prompting all of them to take up a defensive formation around Tazuna. The Demon Brothers growled lowly as they spotted the blond haired cyclops and the raven haired Uchiha that had done them in earlier. "Leave the brats to us Zabuza-senpai," spat out Gozu as he narrowed his eyes hatefully at Naruto.

"We'll make sure to take care of them this time," finished off Meizu as he readied his gauntlet and poised to strike. This is what they were waiting for ever since they had underestimated the brats and their sensei, and overestimated their own abilities. They would not make the same mistake twice.

Zabuza eyed the Jounin and Genin team in front of him carefully before he recognised the Jounin. "Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan, or better known as the Copy Ninja. What an honour it is to meet you," he said while laughing sadistically. "I see now why my two apprentices here had so much trouble with taking you guys down. They were no match for someone of your calibre; however, that won't be the case with me," he stated confidently as he continued to watch everyone in front of him with gleaming eyes, the excitement of the upcoming skirmish written all over his cloth covered face.

Kakashi analysed the situation and thought back to the previous fight with the Demon Brothers. They would still be slightly injured from their fight with Naruto and Sasuke, and both his male Genin would be enough to take down the rogue duo. That much he was sure of. Then there was Zabuza. He would have to take on Zabuza and he would have to leave Sakura and Tazuna by themselves. The Demon Brothers were bent on taking on Sasuke and Naruto to get revenge, so they wouldn't try going for their proper target, Tazuna. He would just have to watch Zabuza for that.

"Sasuke, Naruto, you take the Demon Brothers, just like last time, except I'll let you two finish them off. I'll handle Zabuza myself," said Kakashi as he started to reach for his headband. With the eminence of the upcoming battle, he would need to go all out from the get-go... no holding back, because if he did, it would certainly mean the end for him.

Naruto and Sasuke each nodded to their sensei and jumped into the forest surrounding them with the Demon Brothers hot on their tails, with Sasuke taking Meizu to the left while Naruto took Gozu to the right. Sakura stole one last glance in the direction her team mates had gone, silently wishing them luck before her and Tazuna moved back to get some distance from Kakashi, allowing them to safely watch from the sidelines.

"Are you sure you want to leave your Genin to take on Gozu and Meizu alone? Do you want them to be killed off that badly?" asked Zabuza in a confident but sarcastic tone, letting out another cocksure chuckle as he watched them leave. The Demon Brothers were at least Chunin level and they were taking on two lowly Genin. They would be slaughtered. There was no question about it.

"I have faith in my students' abilities. But I'd advise you to take your thoughts off of them," he said while reaching for his hitai-ate and lowering it, revealing his Sharingan eye and its three tomoe. "Because you have me to deal with now, and you won't last long if you're distracted."

Zabuza laughed maniacally as he jumped down onto the river's surface beside them while grabbing his zanbatou and placing it over his shoulders. "That eye of your's will be of no use if you can't see me," he said as he brought his hands into the Tiger seal in front of his mouth. **"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu)"**

The air around the entire area quickly became saturated with chakra-filled moisture, creating a thick mist that effectively negated the use of eyesight. With this mist it was going to be difficult to fight with Zabuza on equal terms. He had just given himself a huge advantage, because if you could control the battlefield, then you could control the fight to a large extent. 'This battle just got a lot more difficult,' he thought as he grit his teeth lightly in exasperation.

**(With Naruto)**

Naruto was jumping skilfully through the trees with Gozu trailing not too far behind him. He jumped down from a tree branch and into a clearing, skidding to a stop as he turned around to face the Demon Brother. "This is far enough. We'll finish this thing here," he said as he narrowed his eye at the rogue Kiri ninja. He also had a bone to pick with the rogue ninja, if not just for siding with Gato and trying to aid him in bringing this land to its knees.

Gozu smirked as he stared across at the blonde. He had been eager to get another chance to take on the blonde and it seemed fate was on his side. He was not going to underestimate him again, that much was certain. "I've been looking forward to this," he began as he readied his gauntlet, doing some last second adjusting while never taking his eyes off the Genin in front of him. "I hope you're ready to die."

Naruto wasn't going to take it easy on this guy. He was going to go all out from the start and finish this as quickly as possible. He raised his hand to his hitai-ate, something that caught the Demon Brother's attention. Naruto grinned underneath his mask as he raised his hitai-ate, revealing his Sharingan, much to the shock of Gozu. "Let's finish this thing quickly. I have a team to get back to."

Gozu gritted his teeth. This one had a Sharingan too?! This would make things a lot harder, but nevertheless, he was Chunin level while this boy in front of him was a Genin. This would be a piece of cake. 'I'll need to kill this brat quickly so I can go help Zabuza-senpai. It won't be easy for him against Hatake, no matter how much he thinks it will.' He got into a crouch and shot off towards Naruto with his gauntlet ready to strike, swaying from side-to-side as he neared his target.

Naruto looked at the rogue ninja approaching him and couldn't help but smirk. He looked like he was moving in slow motion, and his attempts to try and throw him off by swerving were all for naught. He could make out each muscle on his opponent's body that was straining or twitching, telling him exactly what he was about to do and where he was about to move next. He had to thank his large reserves though, because using his Sharingan took a lot more chakra for him – a non-blood Uchiha – to use, but his massive reserves pretty much negated that effect completely. It only really started taking its toll on him when he threw out a mass of high level jutsu in quick succession, but he never fought like that, so he could manage fine without feeling any side effects. He got into his adopted family's taijutsu stance and waited for the approaching ninja.

Gozu got within striking distance and slashed horizontally with his gauntlet across the area of the blonde's chest. Naruto leaned back away from the slash before he threw his right leg out and kicked Gozu's legs out from underneath, watching as his foe's body slammed into the ground.

Gozu cursed under his breath before he rolled forward and started slashing at Naruto with his gauntlet, his blade's poison dripping along the ground with the quick strikes as the unorthodox weapon whizzed through the air. Naruto kept his eyes focused on the ninja striking at him and dodged every strike that was being thrown his way with graceful fluidity. Naruto smirked at the annoyed look on Gozu's face. He was getting angry, and his attacks were becoming sloppier. It was just a matter of time now.

Gozu over slashed with his next strike, leaving his entire torso open to attack, and he realised his mistake when he had the wind pushed out of his lungs by a powerful kicked that sent him sliding across the clearing, gasping for breath. He glared up at the blonde standing calmly in front of him, his adversary's blue and red calculating eyes boring into his. 'That eye of his is able to see my every movement. I'll never land a hit on him like this ... wait!'

He quickly got to his feet after rolling back and away from Naruto, bringing his hands into the Tiger seal as he began building up his chakra and expelling it from his mouth. **"Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu)"**

Naruto watched the Demon Brother carefully as he performed his jutsu, his eye taking note of the hand sign and the amount of chakra used for the jutsu, filing that away for a later time. He frowned as he watched the area fill up with a thick, chakra-induced mist. The mist was made and infused with Gozu's chakra, and due to his eye, all he could see in front of him was a mass of blue chakra, effectively negating his Sharingan's use. 'Clever move ... I can't see anything with this mist.' He scowled audibly while readying himself for his opponent to attack. This just got a lot more difficult.

"I may not be as proficient in **Sairento Kiringu (Silent Killing)** as Zabuza-senpai is," he stated confidently as his disembodied voice seemed to be coming from every direction. "But it's more than enough to take you down and stop you from using that eye of yours." Gozu smirked. He had his opponent in check mate. He patted himself on the back for the quick plan he had come up with.

He moved silently around Naruto before he struck out with a hard right punch that connected with Naruto's face, sending him crashing to the ground. 'Shit! Think Naruto think, I'm a sitting duck in here!' He was kicked in his side while still lying on the ground before he saw the gauntlet coming down for his mid section from in front of him and rolled to the side, managing to only receive a small cut on his stomach. He winced in pain as the fast acting poison began to take immediate effect. He quickly pulled out a trench knife and stabbed himself in his wound, ridding himself of the poison as his intoxicated blood left his body. He applied pressure and tied a piece of loose bandage around his waist.

Gozu circled around to Naruto's crouched form and sent a haymaker of a kick into his opponent's side, making him gasp audibly for the sweet breath that was forcefully removed from his lungs. He listened carefully as the blonde haired Genin quickly began scurrying around in the mist, swaying slightly due to the lack of oxygen. "Just stop moving around and let me kill you already," said the Demon Brother in slight annoyance from seemingly everywhere. "You're only making this more painful than it has to be. You can't see anything with that eye of yours in this mist so you might as well give up."

Naruto frowned in thought as he regained most of his breath before he mentally smacked himself for being so careless. He was a walking sonar for Kami's sake. He wasn't able to keep calm in this situation and it almost cost him. He would need to work on that. He quickly sent out a pulse of chakra and found his target not too far away to his left. He quickly ran through hand signs as he brought his fingers up to his mouth. **"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!"**

He fired a barrage of smaller fire balls at Gozu's direction, feeling a couple of his fireballs make contact, as well as hearing the blood curdling screams of his burning target. He quickly pulled out two kunai with exploding tags on them and threw them at Gozu's body after he sent out another chakra burst to find his opponent. They kunai hit its target with a squelch, prompting said target to send out another scream. The mist began to dissipate as the rogue ninja couldn't hold the jutsu any longer, and Naruto watched as the tags attacked to his kunai detonated, sending blood and body parts flying all over the clearing.

Naruto waited for the explosion to die down, before he lowered his mask outside of his home for the first time in years and he vomitted in disgust over what he just saw, as well as the fact that he just took that ninja's life. He had killed someone, and after expelling the contents of his stomach, he looked down at his hands, feeling as if they had been stained with blood. He quickly lowered his head and began to stare at his shaking hands, when he heard a loud shriek from a girl coming from back where he left. "S-Sakura-chan's i-in trouble. I have to go help her..." he muttered through the lump in his throat as he pulled his mask up again and quickly took a few deep breaths to calm down. He could dwell on this later, but right now his team mate was in danger, and she needed his help. 'Hold on Sakura-chan.' He quickly took off through the trees back in the direction he had first come from, moving as fast as his legs would carry. 'I hope I'm not too late...'

**(With Sasuke)**

Sasuke stood across from his opponent with an excited smirk on his face. He now had this guy all to himself, to test his skills in his first one-on-one fight against a Chunin level opponent. He watched as his opponent quickly adjusted his gauntlet. Sasuke would give him the time to do it. He wanted to fight Meizu when he was at his best. He had to see how far he had come in these past 4 years.

Meizu was smirking as well from his side of the clearing. He would get his shot to put down the rave-haired brat, something he was really looking forward to after being so embarrassedly taken down in their first encounter. "Let's make this quick brat. I'm not usually this generous, but I'm going to kill you quickly; for your own benefit of course," stated Meizu arrogantly as he crouched into a stance.

'He's overestimating his abiltities again as well as underestimating me. This is going to be easier than I thought.' Sasuke smirked inwardly. This idiot just didn't learn. He was going to make sure to punish the rogue ninja for making the same mistake twice. And they called him the Genin. Sasuke glared at the rogue ninja across from him, activating his Sharingan at the same time. He had to bite back a snicker at seeing the other ninja's shocked looked.

"You must be the last Uchiha ..." he breathed out in mild shock as he cursed inwardly. He had heard of those eyes of their's, being able to anticipate movements and copy jutsu. This was going to be a little more challenging than he thought. 'No matter... I'll kill him all the same.'

Sasuke got into his taijutsu stance as he pulled out two kunai from his pouch. He lowered himself into a crouch before shooting off towards the Demon Brother with impressive speed. He through a right diagonal slash up towards his opponents left shoulder, but redirected it once he saw his opponent's arm come up to parry the strike. He scored a slash against the rogue ninja's abdomen and kicked up towards his chin, sending Meizu flying through the air. Sasuke quickly threw his two kunai at Meizu's airborne form and they wrapped around his torso with the ninja wire attached to them.

He was about to go through hand signs for his next jutsu when 'Meizu' suddenly turned into water, revealing him to be a water clone. 'Shit, where is he? Front, left, right, back, above... below?!' He quickly jumped back just as a hand shot up out of the puddle he was standing on, retrieving another kunai and quickly flicking it at the Demon Brothers torso, impaling him in between the ribs. Sasuke looked ahead and narrowed his eyes at his enemy as 'Meizu' promptly reverted back to water.

**"Suiton: Mizurappa (Water Style: Raging Waves)."** Sasuke quickly turned his head to the enemy's voice, albeit too late, and was struck hard in the abdomen with a thick powerful stream of water. He was flung across the clearing and showed no signs of stopping until his back collided harshly with the trunk of a tree. He groaned painfully as the force from the blunt trauma cascaded through his body. He cracked open his eyes and widened them in shock as he saw 4 shuriken whizzing straight for him.

He rolled to the side and quickly shook off his pain, spinning around to face his opponent once again. He began running through hand signs with impressive speed as he brought his right hand up to his mouth while simultaneously digging his left hand into his shuriken pouch and pulling out as many shuriken he could throw with one hand. **"Katon: Hosenka Tsumabeni (Fire Style: Phoenix Nail Flower Jutsu)."** Sasuke expertly breathed out his fire-natured chakra with his right hand onto the shuriken that he threw with his left hand, hiding the bladed weapons inside the flames, increasing their destructive force as the balls of fire sailed through the air towards Meizu.

The Demon Brother ran through hand seals as quickly as he could before slamming his hands down onto the massive puddle of water below him. **"Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Style: Water Wall)."** He watched with a smirk as steam began to rise from the wall, signifying that he had beaten the fire jutsu. His eyes widened in shock though as 4 shuriken came flying through a split second after the steam began to rise, catching him off guard and peppering his body, embedding themselves deep into his torso. As the wall dropped, he spotted the raven-haired Uchiha disappear in a swirl of mist, vanishing from view completely.

He felt a sharp pain around his abdomen and his eyes widened in shock as the genjutsu that was placed on him dispersed, revealing the Uchiha standing in front of him with ninja wire held between his teeth busy going through hand signs, before he finished on the tiger seal. **"Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu)."**

Two torrents of searing flames travelled along the ninja wire before they met at Meizu's body, colliding with each other and sending his body up into a mass of flames. He held the jutsu for several seconds before allowing it to dissipate, revealing his opponent's fatally-burned, ash-covered body, smoking on the ground.

Having been forced to witness the Uchiha Clan Massacre more times than he could remember, he wasn't at all fazed by having just killed someone. He knew it was either him, or Meizu, and it had to be him so that he could avenge his clan by killing his older brother. He was now one step closer to acquiring the power he needed to accomplish his ambition. He snapped his head to the left when he heard a blood curdling scream. 'That was Sakura! Gotta hurry!' he thought desperately as he ran at full speed back to the area they were in before.

**(With Kakashi)**

Kakashi and Zabuza watched as Naruto, Sasuke and the Demon Brothers left the clearing. "I'm sorry to say Kakashi but your students won't be making it back in one piece. The next time you see them will be in the afterlife," he stated matter-of-factly, 100% sure of his apprentice's abilities.

Kakashi shook his head as he eye smiled at Zabuza. "Your apprenctices made the same mistake of underestimating them and they will pay dearly for it. However, it seems that you've underestimated me as well," he stated harshly as he narrowed his eyes at Zabuza. "It will be your last mistake."

Zabuza threw his sword into the air as he made the Tiger seal, creating a thick mist from the river he was standing on. As soon as the mist was thick enough, he held out his hand and caught his Kubikiribocho before disappearing inside the thick mist.

Kakashi quickly jumped back to Tazuna and Sakura and got in front of them defensively. "Zabuza is a master of the **Sairento Kiringu (Silent Killing)**, so make sure not to drop your guard Sakura. Many people have been killed by this technique without even knowing what was happening to them until they woke up in the afterlife." When used by a master, this killing style was a truly formidable one to face, and Kakashi was going to need to keep on his toes. This mist was getting thicker, so he really had no choice.

Sakura nodded dumbly before she started feeling a sickening presence make its way into the area, seeming to make the air heavy around her. She couldn't explain it, but it was suffocating and she was struggling to breathe properly. She began to question whether they would actually be able to get out of this mission alive, whether they had the power to overcome this rogue Jounin. 'I-I'm not so sure if Kakashi-sensei can do this anymore... Zabuza is so powerful... I... I can't... '

The mist began to thicken even further before Zabuza's disembodied voice echoed throughout the clearing. "Eight points ... the liver, the lungs, the spine, the clavicle vein, the jugular artery, the brain, the kidney and the heart. Which one should I choose first," he spoke in a spine-chilling voice as he laughed maniacally.

Sakura started trembling uncontrollably and slowly brought her kunai up to her heart, blade facing inwards. 'Is this what a battle between two Jounin's is like? I-I can't take this anymore ... I have to end it ..." Her head snapped up when she heard her name being called.

"Calm down Sakura. Don't worry," spoke Kakashi kindly with an eye smile as he held her shoulder reassuringly. "I will protect you with my life. I will not allow my comrades to die."

"You're all talk Kakashi. It's time to end this," drawled Zabuza calmly through the mist, although his voice sounded a lot closer now; almost as if he was...

'Behind us!' thought Kakashi as he spotted Zabuza in the middle of the group, about to take a swing at Tazuna with his massive zanbatou. Before he could strike though, Kakashi ran up to his rear with immense speed before stabbing him in the lower back. Just as he and Sakura had thought he'd won, water began to spill from Zabuza's wound and his eyes widened as 'Zabuza' reverted back into water. 'A **Mizu Bunshin (Water Clone)**!'

Zabuza reappeared behind Kakashi with his zanbatou held behind him as he drove it through Kakashi's body, cleaving him in half. Sakura let out a blood curdling scream as she watched her sensei's body get massacred in half and... turn into water? Zabuza was just as surprised as she was until he felt cold steel against his neck. "It's over Zabuza," spoke the cool voice of Kakashi who was positioned behind the Kirigakure Jounin with a blade poised at his neck.

Zabuza turned his head to see Kakashi standing there with a kunai in hand, his red Sharingan eye spinning hypnotically in his left eye. "You switched yourself out with a **Mizu Bunshin (Water Clone)** just before you gave your little speech, and bided your time as you waited for an opening. Very good Kakashi. That eye of your's really is impressive. But this battle is far from over!" shouted Zabuza as he brought his massive sword around to slice Kakashi in half again.

Kakashi was forced to jump away as the slash from the massive blade grazed his flak jacket, but his eyes widened when he saw Zabuza stab his sword into the ground and use it as leverage to follow up with a double kick to the chest, expelling all the air from Kakashi's lungs as he sailed through the air and into the river Zabuza was standing on earlier.

Kakashi popped his head back out of the water and gasped for air, but frowned in thought before realisation hit him. 'This water ...' He was too late to react, as Zabuza appeared on the water above him with his hand held out.

**"Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu)."**

'Damn it!' Kakashi thought as he watched Zabuza capture him and eye his remaining student and the bridge builder. 'I got careless ... my skills have deteriorated over the years since leaving ANBU ... if I get out of this, I'm going to need to up my training.' He looked back at Sakura and began shouting orders out. "Sakura, take the bridge builder and run. Get out of here before he can get to you."

He watched as Zabuza created three more water clones and they began to move on towards Sakura, who for some reason, wasn't running. "Oh no she won't, this is the end for that pink-haired harpy and that bridge builder you're protecting." The Zabuza clones neared on her location and were about 10 metres away as they grabbed their respective zanbatou from their backs, readying them into striking positions.

Sakura was trembling with fear, she wanted to run and listen to her sensei, she really did, but her legs just wouldn't carry her. 'I can't move! Why won't my legs move?!' The clones inched ever closer, and she was nearing the point of passing out from fear of being killed. She was still too young to die, having not even managed a kiss from her Sasuke-kun. She grit her teeth and simply closed her eyes, opting not to watch as she and her client were carved to pieces. "I-I'm s-s-sorry..." she said softly, only her being able to hear the soft sound of her voice.

**"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!"**

Two massive fireballs came shooting into the clearing, taking out the three Zabuza clones as searing hot flames engulfed the area where they stood before. Naruto and Sasuke landed in the clearing in front of Sakura, breathing somewhat heavily from their mad dash to the clearing. "Are you alright Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto in concern for his teammate, as he eyed Kakashi on the other side of the river, stuck in a sphere of water.

She managed to stammer out a 'Yes' before both boys turned back to the real Zabuza keeping Kakashi at bay in the water prison. Zabuza's eyes widened exponentially as he looked into the eyes of the younger boys. The raven haired brat's eyes were both a two tomoed Sharingan, while the blonde haired brat's hitai-ate was lifted, allowing his three tomoed Sharingan to come into view. 'Those eyes ... they all have the same eyes!' Zabuza almost dropped the hold on his jutsu; those eyes seeming to have a mental impact on his psyche, but managed to recompose himself as started to laugh maniacally again, throwing his head back in amusement. "I take it the one on the right is the last Uchiha I heard about four years ago, and the blonde must be his adopted brother that survived as well." Taking their silence as a 'Yes', he looked down to Kakashi before shifting his gaze back at the three Genin ahead of him. "Ah, this is just too rich Kakashi! You've brought me the last Uchiha and a chibi version of you to slaughter! This is going to be entertaining!" He created five more water clones to take care of the brats, thinking that to be as good a start as any.

Kakashi sighed in relief as he saw his other two students appear and save Sakura. Now he needed them all to run. He didn't have much oxygen left, and now that he was captured, the three were **_way _**out of their league. "You guys need to listen to me and run! You can't stay here! As soon as I was captured the mission failed, now move while you still have time!"

'He can't seriously expect us to run, can he?' thought Sasuke as he looked between all the clones. 'As soon as he kills Kakashi he'll come for us anyway. Our only choice is to fight and try and free you, idiot.' He looked to his brother on his right and nodded his head, receiving one back from the blonde jinchuuriki. Naruto pulled out a kunai from his thigh pouch and reached back into his larger pouch as he scuffled around inside of it. He took out an explosive note and wrapped it around the handle of the kunai, before glaring ahead of him at the clones. "I'm gonna give you one opening while he still underestimates us and we still have the element of surprise on our side," whispered Naruto to his brother as he handed him a fuma shuriken from his back pack.

Sasuke's eyes widened for a split second as he grabbed it, before smirking and nodding his head. Naruto jumped into the air as high as he could go, before he threw his kunai straight down at the Zabuza clone in the middle and then ran through hand signs. **"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"**

One kunai became three hundred, and the entire area was littered with kunai, each one holding an explosive tag. Naruto wondered if perhaps he had gone slightly over board... 'Nah, when it comes to explosives, you can never have too many.' Zabuza watched in awe as explosive kunai littered the ground around his clones and the area in between the Genin and himself, before the blonde brought his right hand up into the Ram seal and spoke calmly. "Boom."

The 300 hundred kunai exploded and rumbled the earth all around the ninja for about about a 500 metre radius, imitating a small earthquake as it violently shook the ground beneath all their feet. The explosions obliterated the ground beneath the Zabuza clones and dug a crater 25 metres deep into the ground below. Everyone, save Sasuke and Naruto, watched in awe at the destruction he had just wrought, and cleaned out their ears to try and lessen the ringing sound that was pulsating in their ear drums. A mass of smoke and a cloud of dust rose into the air and covered the area between Kakashi, Zabuza, and the Genin.

Before Zabuza had any time to think of what to do next, he spotted a fuma shuriken come flying out of the smoke straight for his torso. He smirked. If this is all they could do after that impressive fire work display, then he was thoroughly dissappointed. He skilfully grabbed the spinning shuriken out of the air with his free hand as it got close enough and was about to send a taunt at the brats, until he noticed a second fuma shuriken had been thrown in the shadow of the first. With both his arms occupied, he resorted to jumping over the shuriken as it passed belowe his legs. "If that's all you brats have got th-..."

He was forced to cut his rant short by a faint popping sound, as he turned around to see the fuma shuriken from not a second earlier had transformed into the blonde haired brat, who had now thrown a kunai straight for Zabuza's spine. He cursed lowly as he was forced to release the jutsu he had on Kakashi and jumped away from the incoming kunai further into the river, preferring to live and try attack again than be impaled with a kunai. The 'Naruto' that threw the kunai burst into smoke as Kakashi gasped for breath while crouching on the river's surface.

"I'll kill you brats for interfering!" he seethed angrily as his menacing eyes narrowed on their grinning and panting forms. "I'll just have to finish off where Gozu and Meizu so obviously failed for the second time," he spat angrily, rage and fury present in his eyes as he glared at the object of his current state of anger.

"Your fight is with me," spoke Kakashi harshly as he refilled his lungs with oxygen, narrowing his eyes at Zabuza and somewhat losing his cool for the first time in front of his Genin. "And don't think you'll manage to catch me off guard again. I never make the same mistake twice."

Zabuza narrowed his eyes at the Jounin in front of him as he began going through hand seals, only to narrow his eyes even more as he watched Kakashi go through seals of his own. **"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu)!"** both ninja shouted, causing a large amount of water to rise from the lake and form into the shape of a towering dragon with piercing yellow eyes that stood tall in front of each Jounin.

The two water dragons shot forward at each other and fought for dominance as the two towers of water pushed against each other. The two attacks eventually cancelled each other out as the water dropped back into the river, causing water to spray into the air all over lake.

Zabuza glared across at Kakashi and frowned. He started running through hand seals again before he noticed Kakashi was doing the exact same hand seals as him again, mimicking his moves flawlessly, or rather... his eyes widened in shock. "It's almost as if he can-..."

"... read my mind?" Kakashi added with a raised eyebrow, finishing Zabuza's sentence for him as he continued to go through hand signs. Zabuza's eyes widened even further as he stopped doing hand seals, only for Kakashi to continue.

Zabuza growled out angrily and tried speeding up his hand sings, only to frown when Kakashi sped up as well. "I won't let a-..."

"... Copycat ninja like you monkey my movements?" he finished, watching as Zabuza looked even more shocked than before and stopped his hand signs.

"Can you-..." Zabuza started again, only for Kakashi to cut him off with a smirk present on his face.

"... see the future? Yes," he replied casually before looking serious once more and finishing his hand seals. "And I see your death. **Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu)."**

A vortex of water began forming in front of Kakashi before it shot into the air and took the shape of a massive swirling hurricane of water. After reaching its peak, it shot down at Zabuza with tremendous power and sent him crashing along the ground before his back smashed into a tree trunk, the raging water pinning him down as it flowed into his torso painfully.

Two kunai flew past him from behind the tree before they turned around and wrapped around his frame and the tree with ninja wire that was attached to the rings of said kunai. Kakashi landed on a branch of the tree and pulled out a kunai. "This is the end for you Zabuza. This is where you-..."

Kakashi stopped talking as two senbon needles pierced the neck of Zabuza, seemingly killing him instantly as his body fell lifeless against the ninja wire constricting him. The Konoha shinobi looked up to a branch to see a hunter ninja from Kirigakure standing on the branch.

The hunter ninja had long black hair with two long locks that framed the ninja's face and went past his shoulders. The rest of his hair was kept in a white bun holder. He looked to be no older than about 15, still only just a teenager, yet he was already a hunter ninja. This spoke volumes about his skill as a shinobi. "You were right. This was the end for him," the hunter ninja spoke softly and calmly, exuding the strength that he seemed to posses.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes slightly as he approached Zabuza's slumped form and checked his neck for a pulse, just to be sure. He sighed as he looked back at his team before looking back at the latest arrival. "He's dead. I suppose you would like his body now, right?" he said as he turned to the hunter ninja.

The hunter ninja nodded his head as he jumped down from the tree branch he was standing on and moved to Zabuza's downed form. "I would like to thank you Konohagakure shinobi for slowing him down and tiring him out. We have been in pursuit of him for a long time, having been eluded by him for many years now. Thank you again," the hunter ninja stated as he bowed at the silver haired Jounin before he used a **Kiri-Shunshin (Mist Body Flicker)** to quickly move over to Zabuza. He wrapped Zabuza's arm around his shoulder as he picked him up. "Thank you again. If you'll excuse me, I have some business to take care of," he stated as he looked down at Zabuza, the one eyed Jounin understanding the 'business' needing to be taken care of.

Kakashi nodded as he watched the ninja vanish in a swirl of mist before he lowered his hitai-ate over his Sharingan again. He looked over at his Genin and eye smiled. "Good job gang, it's time for us to..." Kakashi never got to finish his sentence as his eyes began to droop and he fell forward, all his motor functions failing him.

Naruto quickly used a **Shunshin (Body Flicker)** to appear under Kakashi and caught him on his back as he lowered his hitai-ate as well, adjusting Kakashi into a more comfortable position. "I think he's just exhausted. For someone not of the Uchiha Clan, using a Sharingan for a prolonged period of time is extremely taxing on said person's chakra."

"Then how come you're still standing Naruto?" questioned Sakura. According to him, a non-Uchiha using the Sharingan used up a lot of chakra, so he should be suffering from chakra exhaustion as well.

"Well, I have, give or take, about 5 times as much chakra as Kakashi-sensei does, so that's why using a Sharingan is actually fine for me. My large chakra reserves can handle the amount of chakra it needs." Naruto adjusted Kakashi-sensei on his back again as he turned to fully face the rest of the group. "Now what do we do?"

Sakura looked back to Tazuna as she pointed at him. "We continue on to Tazuna-san's house and rest up there. I suppose after we get there we wait for Kakashi-sensei to wake up and give us our orders," she shrugged, feeling that that would be their best plan. They didn't have their Jounin-sensei with them at the moment, so the first thing they needed to do was nurse him back to health. The rest of the group nodded as Tazuna lead the way back to his house so that Team 7 could set up shop there and rest from their battles.

**(Elsewhere in another clearing - Nami no Kuni)**

In a clearing far off from the battle that had just taken place between Zabuza and Kakashi, the hunter ninja had laid Zabuza on the ground to examine his body. He looked over Zabuza's motionless face as he reached into his pouch and pulled out a tool kit that he rolled open along the ground beside Zabuza.

He reached down to the tool kit and grabbed a pair of scissors. "First, I'll cut off the cloth and drain some of the blood ..." the hunter ninja muttered to himself. He moved the pair of scissors closer to the cloth around Zabuza's mouth before a hand shot up and firmly gripped the hunter ninja's wrist.

"That's alright," Zabuza growled in a raspy voice as he gasped for breath. "I'll do it myself."

The hunter ninja looked at him in slight shock before he chuckled softly. "I see you're awake already. Welcome back from the dead," he mocked in a teasing tone.

Zabuza growled at the hunter ninja as he pulled out the senbon from his neck with wreckless abandon. "You sure were rough Haku. Did you have to hit me in the neck?" He growled again. It really hurt every time he had to get thrown in his neck, and Haku always used the most ruthless ways.

"I was rough? The way you're pulling those senbon out is rough. You could really die if you pull them out that wrecklessly," he replied with a hint of amusement in his voice. There was nothing more fun that getting a rise out of a tightly wound person, and Zabuza was most assuredly tightly wound.

"Whatever," grunted Zabuza as he pulled out the last senbon with a squelch of blood. "And how long do you plan to wear that stupid mask?" He hated when his partner wore that mask. It reminded him of all the years of them having to flee from real hunter ninja.

"I like wearing this mask," the hunter ninja replied off-handedly as he pulled off his mask, revealing the face of a young girl of 15 years old. "Besides, if I didn't have this mask and intervene in your fight, you would have been killed for sure," she answered as she smiled sweetly at Zabuza.

Zabuza growled again as he lifted the cloth back up around his lower face. "And you didn't have to hit me in the neck to fake my death. You're as brutal as always Haku."

Haku giggled as she picked up the senbon from the floor and cleaned them of their blood. "Yeah, I know, but we both know how angry you would have gotten if I scarred that flawless body of yours. Besides, there is less muscle around the neck, allowing for an easier penetration point."

Zabuza grunted as he tried to move his body again. He winced in pain as he continued to try. He had taken some serious damage fighting against Kakashi, and he had lost his two kouhai to those two brats, whom both had the Sharingan.

"You'll probably be out for about a week due to the severity of your injuries ... but you should be moving again in about half that time if you're as stubborn as usual." Haku giggled again. Messing with her most precious person was always fun. He knew she was only playing, but his serious attitude all the time made it worth it.

Zabuza glared at his partner from the corner of his eyes before he smirked and chuckled softly. "You're so innocent and pure, yet devious and clever at the same time. That's what I like about you Haku."

"Well I am just a kid after all, what do you expect." She gave her partner a serious look as she wondered about something. "When we fight them the next time, and there will be a next time, will you be able to handle them?"

Zabuza had to think carefully about this. He would be able to take on Kakashi by himself, and Haku would have been able to handle the brats, but those two boys were going to cause him some problems. They both had Sharingan, one implanted just like Kakashi by the looks of it, and the other boy must have been the last full blooded Uchiha. He would be around the raven haired boy's age about now if he remembered correctly.

"I'm not entirely sure Haku. I could handle Kakashi by myself no problem; it's those two kids I'm not sure of."

This wasn't the first time Haku had seen Zabuza with a small amount of doubt in his thoughts, which meant that these people must have been pretty strong. She had been watching the fight between Zabuza and Kakashi, and she saw when the two boys intervened. They both had the Sharingan as well. It would be a difficult fight no doubt. "We'll just have to wait until you're recovered fully before going in to attack. We'll need you at full strength if we want to have a chance of taking them down. In the meantime, I'll just keep training to increase my speed."

Zabuza nodded at that. It was the best they could do for now in the condition that he was currently in. 'The next time we meet Kakashi ... I'll kill you... and take down the Sharingan.'

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**AN: That's a chapter people, hope you enjoyed it. The Zabuza battle and the battles with the Demon Brother's were pretty fun to write up, and im not sure whether i'm any good with fight scenes, so let me know how you guys found them and what i can improve on, because i always have room to improve. This arc will most probably be about three chapters long including this one, so it will be over before you know it for those who are sick of reading Wave.**

**Also, i apologise if my writing is repetitve and you feel like you're just reading everything that you've read before :P I'm am a rookie Fanfic writer, so please accept my sincerest apologies ;)**

**Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll see you at the next chapter. Until next time...**

**Justin**


	7. The Bridge Between Battles

**AN: Hey guys, i'm finally back with the next instalment of The Flaming Maelstrom, and i want to apologise for taking as long as i did to update. I got caught up with a lot of work at University, and i had minimal time to write, so again, i apologise :/ can you ever forgive me ;)**

**Also, just to clear some things up, their will be a pairing, but that will only come into play much later, and it will be with someone whom i have personally never read an proper fanfic with. It might not be a great pairing in many of your opinions, but i want to try it and see how it works. Maybe i'll reveal it a little closer to the time :)**

**So, back to this chapter, i felt the name was pretty clever when compared with the name for the next chapter, if i must say so myself ;) So, without further adew, chapter 7.**

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**Chapter 7: The Bridge Between Battles**

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Team 7 along with Tazuna finally came upon the bridge builder's house about an hour after night fall. They were all by now thoroughly exhausted and were looking forward to a good night's rest. Tazuna and his family lived in a two story house of decent size, not too big but not too small. Just perfect for a family of his size. It was located on a dock that extended a little over the ocean.

Team 7 approached the house with Naruto piggy-backing an unconscious Kakashi. "Tsunami, open up, it's Tazuna!" he shouted as he banged on the door to his home. They heard some shuffling inside the house before the sounds of locks being opened filled their ears.

The door opened to reveal a beautiful brown eyed woman with shoulder length dark blue hair who looked to be in her mid twenties. She was wearing a short sleeved pink shirt with the end of the sleeves and collar being red, as well as a blue skirt that gave her a motherly look.

"I'm so glad you're alright Tousan!" exclaimed Tsunami as she quickly ran out and gave her father a hug. She knew that Gato was after his life and she always feared that one day he'd leave and never return. It was a stressful life, but with her father being the man that was going to save Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** with the bridge he was building, she had to endure. For the people of this village. For the people Kaiza fought for.

"Of course I'm fine Tsunami, I had these ninja with me after all," he said happily as he gestured to the people standing behind him. He'd had his doubts in the beginning, but they hadn't steered him wrong yet and were still here protecting him against protocol. He couldn't thank them enough.

Tsunami looked around Tazuna to see the three ninja standing outside with one being piggy backed over another. "I can't thank you enough," she said, tears threatening to escape her eyes. "I never know when something might happen to him, but with you guys here, he'll definitely be all right." They waited outside for a minute, Tsunami still clutching onto Tazuna before she realised they were all still standing outside and hurriedly apologised. "Please, come inside. I can get him into a bed right away."

The group saw that she was pointing at Kakashi so they nodded gratefully and followed her inside. "Thank you Tsunami-san. We would really appreciate that," said Sakura as she bowed politely to the woman and spoke on behalf of the group.

Tsunami waved her off and directed them upstairs where she quickly laid out a bed for the silver haired man to lie in. "Oh, it's nothing. It's the least I can do." Naruto gently laid Kakashi on the bed before moving over to a couch situated next to the bed and uncerimoniously flopping himself face first into the cushions. "Man, I can't remember being so exhausted before in my life. Kakashi-sensei sure is heavy," mumbled Naruto with his face still buried in the cushions, breathing out a huge sigh of relief as his body got some reprieve.

To the rest of the people in the room, all they heard coming from Naruto were muffled mumbles that sounded completely incoherent. Tsunami giggled softly and put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing, while the rest just shook their heads before Sakura turned to Tsunami. "Thank you for allowing us to stay here at your home Tsunami-san. We really appreciate it."

"Oh, it's really no problem for the people who are protecting my family. Now, the boys can sleep in this room, and I have one extra room where you can sleep young lady." She gestured for Sakura to follow her as she left an already sleeping Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke, who just fell asleep in the single seater couch that was on the other side of Kakashi's make-shift bed.

**(Next Morning)**

Naruto woke up the next morning to the sound of cawing seagulls that were flying around outside, circling around sea water, looking for food. He woke up relatively early, and looking out the window he saw that the sun had just risen. The view of the sunrise was beautiful as it reflected off the surface of the bright blue ocean.

He got up and found his body to be a little stiff from the akward sleeping position. He decided that a shower was in order, so he moved into the bedroom's bathroom and quickly took a five minute shower to clean himself off and wake up, while at the same time helping to loosen up his taut muscles from the previous day's fight.

As he stood in the shower, he glanced down at his hands and reached for the bar of soap. He began frantically scrubbing at his hands with the bar of soap, his eyes slowly starting to water when the blood that he could still see was staining his hands didn't wash off. His heart rate increased, and his breathing became laboured before he leaned his head against the wall of the shower and let the water run down his back and the front of his hair, washing away the tears that ran down his face.

He couldn't remember how long he'd been standing there, but eventually, he reluctantly reached a hand out and turned off the water, remaining in the shower for a while longer as he let his mind wander on the previous day's events. He'd killed someone. With his own hands. Sure, he'd probably deserved it, but did the end really justify the means? Was it really okay to kill someone because they deserved it? His mind traveled to the body, the blood, and he looked down at his hands again. A lump developed in the back of his throat, and he darted to the toilet bowl, wanting to expel the contents of his stomach, but to no avail. He kneeled over the toilet for several more minutes before finally standing and giving himself some time to breathe as he stood by the window and inhaled the crisp, morning air.

After he got into some clean clothes, he went back to his room to find Sasuke and Kakashi still fast asleep. He decided that a nice walk outside by the ocean would be a good idea so that he could clear his mind, so he quietly left the room and made his way downstairs.

Once he got to the bottom floor he was surprised to find Tsunami already up and working around the house while preparing some food at the same time. "Good morning Tsunami-san," Naruto said politely as he gave a nice stretch in the wide open space of the kitchen.

"Ah, good morning Shinobi-san, I hope you had a good night's rest. By the way, I didn't get your name last night." They had all been so tired so she didn't want to bother them with having to make introductions.

Naruto eye smiled under his mask as he moved to sit down in one of the chairs in the kitchen. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki Uchiha, but Naruto is just fine."

She nodded her head as she quickly looked back down to finish chopping the food on the table before she turned around and looked back up at Naruto. "So Naruto-san, would you like something to eat? I'm preparing breakfast for everyone, but I could make you something now if you'd like?"

"That's okay Tsunami-san, I'll wait for everyone else to wake up." He smiled at her before looking out the kitchen window thoughtfully and getting out of his seat. "I think I'm actually just going to go for a nice walk now, and then I'll be back in around 30 minutes."

Tsunami nodded as she continued with preparing the meal for all of the guests and her family. She couldn't remember the last time she had guests over, so she wanted to make a good impression.

Naruto walked out the front door and his nose was immediately bombarded with the salty smell of the sea, while his ears were listening to the tranquil sound of the crashing waves rocking up against the shoreline. He took in a deep breath before jumping to the roof of the house and deciding that lying there was just perfect. There wasn't really place to walk anyway, as the house was located on a dock.

He created a clone and had it carry on reading their lastest fuuinjutsu book as he just closed his eyes and took in his surrounding with his remaining 4 senses, sans sight. The salty taste in the air, the salty smell of the sea, the cool feeling of the wind rushing through his mask and damp blond locks, and the sounds of waves crashing in the distance as well as the seagulls cawing back and forth as they fought for a fish one had managed to catch.

Thirty minutes flew by rather quickly, and he started to hear more noise coming from down below and figured that everybody was probably strating to wake up now. He left his clone up on the roof to continue reading while he decided to move inside. His tummy was growling, and that meant that he needed to get food, and he needed to get it now. His mind was, for the moment, thoughtless about his first kill, and he just hoped it would remain that way. Thinking about it was hard enough.

He disappeared in a swirl of leaves and appeared outside an open window before he disappeared in another swirl and reappeared inside the house. 'Man I love that jutsu. I really hit the jackpot when I stumbled upon that beauty.' Other people might think he was abusing the jutsu, but the way he was able to use it felt like second nature to him. Especially when he was using his Sharingan, then he could really abuse it. He took on a mischevious look before focusing back on the people moving around the house.

He ran into the kitchen to find everyone seated already, all except their sensei. Sasuke and Sakura looked as normal as ever, albeit a bit tired. It was to be expected after yesterday's events. Things just went from bad to worse in an instant. Talk about shitty luck.

"Ah, Naruto-san, I was just about to come look for you. Breakfast is ready," Tsunami said with a gentle smile as she sat down at the table and began eating like everybody else.

Breakfast was pretty uneventful, save for Tsunami's son declaring that all the ninja were just wasting their time being here as they were all going to end up being killed by Gato's men anyway. Once breakfast was over the team of Genin quickly got some food for their sensei and decided to go see what their plan of action was. They needed to protect Tazuna and Kakashi would be out of it for several days, so they were waiting to see what their sensei would come up with.

"How are you feeling sensei?" asked Sakura as she knelt next to the downed Kakashi and helped him sit up before giving him the food. He didn't look to be in bad shape, although he looked thoroughly exhausted.

"I'm not feeling too bad," he answered in a strained voice, but winced in pain when he over extended his arm to sit up. Sakura gave him a knowing look as she pulled out her medical kit. She dug inside for a bit and pulled out some herbs, crushing them before adding it Kakashi's food.

"This should help to improve your recovery time, but I'll need to give you that at breakfast and supper each night. You should be up and about in no time sensei," she replied happily as she packed up her kit.

She blinked and looked back at her sensei, only to see his bowl empty already. She looked between the bowl and Kakashi a few times, opening and closing her mouth without uttering any words before just deciding to drop the matter. It would be too much trouble to ask. Naruto and Kakashi shared a knowing grin. Consuming food in unimaginable ways such as that was an unspoken rule amongst mask users everywhere. It was one of the things that every mask user had to know.

"Anyway," trailed off Sakura as she got back into her sitting position beside her sensei and glanced in his direction. "Now that Zabuza and the Demon Brothers are gone, what's our next move?"

Kakashi frowned upon hearing his student's question. "I was actually wondering about that. Do you remember when that hunter ninja showed up, how she killed Zabuza?" asked Kakashi as he looked between his three students.

"She used senbon needles," chimed Sasuke from his spot against the wall. "They're usually used for medical purposes, such as acupuncture needles, but can also be deadly if aimed at vital spots."

"Exactly," stated Kakashi. The more he was going over this and hearing it from his students the more plausible his theory was sounding. "And what are hunter ninjas supposed to do the minute they get to their target's dead body?"

"The hunter ninja is supposed to dispose of the body immediately on the spot," Naruto answered this time as he had a thoughtful look on his face. "They are supposed to slice off the head to take with as identification before they burn the body to ensure their village's secrets aren't discovered."

Kakashi nodded as Sakura's eyes widened. "That hunter ninja didn't dispose of Zabuza's body as he got it though. And the spots in the neck that Zabuza was hit with the senbon needles weren't vital spots." Sakura was mentally patting herself on the back. Her reading up on becoming a medic had finally proved fruitful. **_'Man we're so bad ass! Cha! Sasuke-kun will definitely be impressed!'_**

Kakashi nodded again before he got a serious look on his face. "Long story short ... Zabuza is still alive and that hunter ninja was working with him." All his students nodded seriously at that, having come to the same conclusion after setting out all the information like that.

Sasuke and Naruto were thinking through this new information with a critical eye. They knew for a fact how dangerous Zabuza was. He had gone one-on-one against Kakashi, one of their village's top Jounin, and neither of them got away unscathed. They were pretty much equal, and if it wasn't for Naruto and Sasuke's timely intervention, their sensei would have been killed. Sakura was slightly worried as she thought about the possibility of having to face Zabuza again. It was an unfavourable scenario she didn't want to repeat, but it seemed that they would have no choice. Zabuza would be back, and he would not underestimate them again.

"Zabuza took as much damage as I did, if not more, so he will be out for about a week just like me. We will use this time to prepare for when we face off again. We're going to be doing some training," he said happily as he gave all his students an eye smile.

"I'm not sure if a little bit of training is really going to help sensei," spoke Sakura with doubt filling her voice. What could they possibly do in a week to help them best a rogue Jounin? "We're facing off against someone not even you could beat Kakashi-sensei, and you're an Elite Jounin."

"Sakura, who was it that saved me from certain death while I was stuck inside that water prison?" he asked rhetorically. "You guys have all improved a great deal, and you were all already strong ninja to begin with. You, Sakura, have improved the most." He watched as she blushed in embarassment for a second before continuing. "While you won't be able to best him individually, this training will help your guys' skills greatly."

His Genin seemed to be okay with the idea. Zabuza wouldn't be able to attack for at least a week, so they had 7 days to get in some training. Most of them were just glad that their sensei was finally going to train them in something that wasn't teamwork exercises. Seriously, those things were starting to grate on their nerves. Teamwork is all good and well, but if all the team members are lacking in strength, then what does it matter.

Kakashi got up on shaky legs and grabbed a pair of crutches that were sitting off a bit to the side of his make-shift bed. "Okay gang," he said enthusiastically with an eye smile as he made for the door at a snail's pace. "Let's head on out to start with your training."

The group of Genin sweat dropped as they waited several minutes for their sensei to make his way out the room, down the stairs, through the kitchen and out the house. He was moving infinitely slower than usual, and the Genin couldn't help but think that their sensei was over exaggerrating his illness. He was just being as lazy as ever, and now he had a convenient excuse for moving as slow as he was.

Kakashi led them out the house and into the forest that was situated to the right hand side of the house. They walked for a while before they came into a decent sized clearing and decided to train at this spot. "Okay guys, before we begin with our training, let's have a quick review on chakra."

"We already all know about chakra Kakashi-sensei," Naruto stated matter-of-factly. "It's is the moulding of our physical energy and our spiritual energy, yadda yadda yadda, and we use it for jutsu. Chakra in a nutshell," Naruto added with an eye smile.

Kakashi sweatdropped at the 'detailed' explanation. 'I suppose they do all know what chakra is,' he thought surprisingly. "I guess we might as well get started then. Today, you're all going to be learning ... how to climb a tree." All his Genin face faulted. They were going to learn how to climb a tree? And just when they thought their sensei would actually teach them something.

"As much as I hate to ask, and I really do; how is this going to help us Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto as he ran a hand through his hair and sighed softly.

"I'm glad you asked Naruto," said Kakashi with an eye smile as he walked up to a tree in their clearing with his crutches. He quickly made the Ram seal to help focus his still exhausted chakra reserves, before moving up to the tree and starting to walk. Vertically. Against gravity. Without using his hands. He kept walking until he was standing upside down on a tree branch before glancing at his students. "By channeling chakra to the soles of your feet, you will be able to climb trees and walls only using your feet, meaning you will be able to fight on vertical surfaces. This will also improve your chakra control because the soles of the feet are the most difficult place to channel chakra, so by mastering this, you will be able to master any jutsu. Theoretically, of course."

He pulled out three kunai and threw them down at his students. "Use those kunai to mark your progress. Since you three are my favourite Genin team I've ever had ..." stated Kakashi with an eye smile, watching as his three students sweat dropped at the obviousness behind that statement. "... I've decided to give you some invaluable informationto help you out. If you use too much chakra, you'll get blown off the tree, too little chakra and you'll slide right off. Try and find that balance before running up there with the wreckless abandon of a 5 year old. Well, good luck." He eye smiled at his students as he moved to sit down on a tree branch and pulled out his 'precious'.

His Genin grabbed the kunai before using the Ram hand seal to focus their chakra just like their sensei did. Naruto opened his eyes and walked up to the tree slowly. He put one foot against the tree to test his chakra output and adjusted it accordingly. He then put on the next foot and did the same. He looked up and started running, making it 9 steps before beginning to lose his grip, so he quickly slashed the tree before back flipping off.

Sasuke approached the exercise much the same way as Naruto, except he made it 15 steps before he blew off the tree and made his slash, backflipping down to the ground. 'This is a lot harder than I originally thought. It must have some merit after all,' Sasuke thought approvingly.

Sakura was the most surprising of all. She made it all the way to the highest branch on her first try, although she looked slightly winded. "Hey guys, this is fun, don't you think?" she asked excitedly as she dangled her feet from the branch she was sitting on.

"Well done Sakura," said Kakashi happily. "It seems the kunoichi of the team has the best chakra control. That is most probably due to your low chakra reserves, so I want you to keep running up and down the tree until you get exhausted. But, again, well done Sakura."

Sakura beamed under the praise before looking down and seeing Sasuke smirking while Naruto was grinning. 'Sasuke-kun is smiling at me! I think he's proud of me!'

Sasuke and Naruto were both grinning for different reasons though. They finally understood why they were having so much trouble with this exercise. Their chakra reserves were way too big, so they were naturally going to have trouble with this exercise. Sasuke moved back to his tree while Naruto stared thoughtfully at his before grinning and making the cross hand seal. **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)."**

Ten clones puffed into existence before all of them moved to a tree and started doing the tree climbing exercise as well. Sasuke and Sakura didn't seem fazed by this odd phenomenon, but Kakashi was staring wide eyed at his blond student. 'Shadow clones transfer the experience they gain back to the user, so he's using them to increase the speed of his training! By using ten clones, he'll be able to spend ten-times as much hours on this training and finish it in ten-times the normal training time! What an incredibly ingenious method! I must inform Hokage-sama of this, although I'm positive this technique would only work for someone like Naruto. I mean, his chakra reserves are most likely 5 times greater than mine.'

Training for the day went on as per the norm, or as normal as a team of a pink haired kunoichi, a raven haired Uchiha and 11 blond haired students attepmting to run up a tree can get. Before the training was about to be ended, Naruto dispersed all his clones before clutching his head in pain. "Damn, I forgot... I need to disperse them slowly..." he muttered through clenched teeth. He idly wondered if doing that could ever fatally hurt him, but let that thought drop. He didn't think it would, it just gave him a slight headache and then it was gone.

After getting over the initial influx of information, he looked up at the tree in front of him before starting to run up the surface. He ran and he ran, and he continued to run all the way to the top of the tree with no trouble whatsoever. "Yeah! Check at this Kakashi-sensei! Pretty bad ass wouldn't you say?" he asked with a massive grin in play as he circled around the tree's upper most branch.

'Amazing. The training method actually worked! For someone with chakra reserves the size of Naruto's, to be able to master the tree climbing exercise in one day... It's unheard of. You never cease to amaze me Naruto. Sensei would be proud,' he thought with a soft smile. "Well done Naruto, you can come down now." He looked back down at the rest of his Genin. Sasuke was glaring at the tree in front of him while Sakura was propped up against hers as she lay on the floor, completely out of breath. "That's the end for today's training. We'll continue tomorrow."

They all got up and started walking back to the house they were staying at. Naruto and Sasuke were a ways in front of the rest, wanting to get home as soon as possible to get something to eat. "Hey, Naruto, do you think you could uh, give me some tips for this tree climbing," he asked softly, trying not to the let his sensei and Sakura hear him.

Naruto looked towards Sasuke before eye smiling and giving him a nod. "Sure thing Teme. So, like Kakashi-sensei said, too much chakra, you blow off, too little, you fall..."

Kakashi was walking slightly behind the two males of his team and was watching their exchange with a heartfelt smile. 'Naruto getting adopted into the Uchiha family and surviving the Massacre was possibly the best thing that could have happened for Sasuke. I can't imagine what he'd be like permanently if his entire family was killed. Not to mention Naruto if he had to grow up as an orphan instead as well.'

Sasuke was listening intently and hanging onto his brother's words as if his life depended on it. He would get this exercise down within the next day. He was a genius, after all. Or so people said. He didn't really care what other people thought of him. "So, after I find that balance, I just need to channel a constant amount of chakra and I'll be able to walk up the tree?" he asked expectantly. Naruto made it sound a lot easier said than done.

Naruto nodded as he continued walking beside his brother. "Yep, the most important thing is just finding that balance," he repeated, trying to get that point across.

Sasuke nodded once again before giving his brother a grateful smile. "Thanks Dobe," he said softly, with no malice behind his words. He could always count on his brother when he needed help with something.

They arrived back at home later that night and were busy having supper with Tazuna and his family. Naruto was finished eating already and had shocked everyone but Sasuke and Kakashi with the way he ate, as he put the food through his mask. Sasuke was busy inhaling his food, much like Naruto would when eating ramen, having expended a lot of chakra with today's training. And Sakura was slowly eating her food as she struggled to keep her eyes from closing in the middle of dinner.

Kakashi continued to read his smut at the dinner table, much to the irritation of Tsunami and the delight to Tazuna, who was sitting beside Kakashi and reading with him. "So," Kakashi began, not looking up from his book as he talked to his students. "How are you guys finding the training?"

Sasuke just grunted through his mouth full of food as he moved to dish up another bowl while Sakura looked up with half lidded eyes. "It's so exhausting Kakashi-sensei..."

"Well Sakura, you will continue with this exercise until you can run up and down that tree for an hour at least without stopping." Seeing his student's defeated expression, he continued. "It's also imperative for a medic ninja to have excellent chakra control **_and_** high chakra reserves. You already have the first half mastered, so you could say you're already on your way to becoming a fine medical ninja," he added cheerfully, throwing in that little fact to motivate his student.

Sakura seemed to perk up at that although it did nothing for her tiredness as she gave a weak smile. Naruto turned the page of his fuuinjutsu book as he looked up at his sensei. "Is there anything else we can do after the tree climbing exercise Kakashi-sensei?"

"Well, there is the next step in chakra control training that I suppose I could teach you. I'll tell you about it tomorrow morning rather," stated Kakashi as he turned the page of his book.

Naruto nodded his head as he continued to read his fuuinjutsu book. Everyone continued eating until Sakura noticed a picture of Tazuna and his family behind his head that had a rip in it, only showing half of the photo. "Excuse me Tazuna-san, but what's wrong with that picture on the wall there? It looks like half of it is missing."

Tazuna and his family all visibly flinched at the mention of the photo and took on looks of sadness as Inari abruptly stood up and ran up the stairs and into his room, a loud bang following his exit. Team 7 looked at Tazuna thoughtfully, mentally asking him if he could explain.

He proceeded to tell them about a man named Kaiza, a man that became like a father to Inari before he married Tsunami. He had become well known in the village as the 'Hero of Nami', always doing things that nobody else could dream of doing to help the village and its people. But when Gato arrived, he tried to stop the man and stand up to him, only to be publicly executed in front of all the villagers in a viscious show of brutality and power. Inari had never been the same after that day, his attitude becoming extremely negative and defeated.

Naruto looked down in sadness as he thought back to when his entire family and clan were all killed 4 years ago. He quickly drove those thoughts out of his head, really not in the mood to dwell on the past. He did feel a little bit sympathetic for the boy, having lived an eerily similiar past himself, as well as Sasuke.

With a real damper being put on the lovely dinner they were all enjoying a moment ago, they decided to get to bed nice and early so that they could be re-energised for tomorrow's training.

Once again, just before Naruto went to bed, he created a Kage Bunshin that he had read his fuuinjutsu book while he slept. He only had a few more chapters left before he was finished with the last of his fuuinjutsu books, and then he would need to find a seal master that could actually teach him. Reading up on seals could only take you so far, and he was almost at that point. He got into bed and closed his eyes, eagerly awaiting his training the next morning.

**(The Next Morning)**

Naruto woke up to the smell of something delicious tickling his nose. He scrunched his nose a bit before slowly opening his eye to adjust to the bright sunlight shining in from his room's window. He could already hear the sound of the crashing waves. 'I could get used to living around here,' he thought slowly, as he stretched out his limbs and let out a yawn. "Ah, what a beautiful morning," he exclaimed brightly as he got up and started his morning routine.

After the team had all eaten breakfast, Sakura and Sasuke went ahead to the same clearing as yesterday while Kakashi stayed behind at Tazuna's house with Naruto to show him how to do the next level of the chakra control exercises.

Naruto followed Kakashi who was slowly hobbling along on his crutches as they approached the sea water while still standing on the docks. Kakashi turned to Naruto as he started to explain the next exercise. "So, now that you've mastered the tree climbing exercise, we will be moving on to the second chakra control exercise. Water walking."

Naruto's eye widened in surprise, as he wasn't expecting his sensei to say something like that. As a shinobi, you see a lot of strange things during your life, so he wasn't entirely caught off guard, but it was still a little surprising to imagine that ninja could actually walk on water. It was like something out of an anime. The irony... "How do you do it Kakashi-sensei?" he asked eagerly, already wanting to jump straight in; well, not jump straight in, that would mean he wasn't getting it, but... you know what I mean.

"Ah," began Kakashi as he held up a finger, before he focused his chakra with the Ram seal and proceeded to defy the laws of physics by hobbling along the slowly moving water with his crutches. "Much like with the tree climbing exercise, you channel chakra to the soles of your feet to walk on the water's surface," stated Kakashi as he walked a little further out. "But, because the water is constantly moving, you have to constantly change the amount of chakra your channeling to your soles, therefore making this exercise significantly more difficult than what you might think."

"Significantly more difficult my ass Kakashi-sensei, this looks exactly like tree climbing," Naruto said confidently as he focused chakra to the soles of his feet before running at the sea from the dock and jumping towards the water. Needless to say, he stayed up for all of 20 split seconds before falling straight into the ice cold water.

Kakashi was chuckling from his spot on the water as he watched Naruto's head pop out of the water, coughing wildly to get the water he inhaled out of his system. "Like I said Naruto, significantly more difficult that you think." Naruto just muttered something under is breath about scarecrows before he swam to the dock and climbed out.

"Well," Kakashi started as he walked off the water and back onto the dock. "I'm going to go and supervise the other two so I'll leave you here to continue with this." He began to walk away before he turned around and narrowed his eye at his student. "And no Shadow Clones Naruto." Seeing his student about to protest, he held up his hand and continued. "You will get this chakra control exercise down by yourself, and once you can walk around on the water for ten minutes without falling in, you can start using your shadow clones to master it. I'm serious about this Naruto, so get to it."

Naruto nodded reluctantly as he looked back towards the ocean in front of him. "I'm going to be falling in quite a lot so I might as well take off my clothes," he muttered to himself. He took of his shirt, pants and sandals and was left only in his boxers as he attempted to walk on water yet again. Today was going to be a long day...

**(Unknown Location Deep Within the Forest)**

Haku was silently sitting beside Zabuza's bed as she continued to mix the herbs she was going to give to Zabuza, in order to increase his healing time. He would normally be healed within a week, but they needed him to be healed before that so they could kill the bridge builder and receive the money they needed to travel back to Kirigakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Mist)**.

"Well well well, it seems even you have been defeated, **_almighty Demon of the Mist_**."

Haku and Zabuza turned their heads to the door to see Gato standing there with 2 of his bodyguards flanking him on either side. One of his bodyguards had white hair with lined tattoos running under his eyes. He wore a blue jacket with multiple pockets and a katana was tied to his waist.

The other bodyguard was topless with an intricate vine tattoo going along his left arm and his upper torso. He had an eye patch over his right eye and carried a katana strapped to his waist. Both bodyguards were wearing shit-eating smirks as they stood behind their boss with their hands on the hilts of their swords.

"You Kirigakure **(Hidden Mist)** ninja all seem to be pathetic," Gato spat confidently at the bed ridden man, as he moved further into the room. This 'Demon' was not so demonic when he was confined to his bed, he thought amusedly. "Your colleagues were killed and you were close enough to dying as well. What am I paying you for?!"

Gato just looked at Zabuza as he remained silent and unmoving in his bed. Gato moved closer and reached a hand for Zabuza's throat. "Hey, I'm talking to-.."

He was interrupted from his advancement as Haku grabbed his wrist and broke it before flinging him backwards towards his body guards. "Don't you dare put your filthy hands on him!" Haku spat as she stood and glared at the shorter man.

Gato's bodyguards moved to try and take down the fake hunter ninja, preparing to draw their swords, but before they could even blink, they found the same hunter ninja standing in between them with their swords being held at their throats. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Haku snarled softly. "I'm really not in the mood to take your shit."

The two body guards blinked furiously in fear as they felt cold steel on their skin. Sweat began rolling down their faces as they watched the hunter ninja bring the swords down to their gonads. They gulped audibly before Gato spoke up again.

"O-one more chance!" He stammered out as he held up a fist with his unbroken hand. "That's all you're getting before every hunter ninja in Kirigakure **(Hidden Mist)** knows you're here!" With that, Gato and his men quickly left the hideout with haste, stumbling over each other as they scrambled out the hideout.

"That wasn't necessary Haku, I could've handled him myself," said Zabuza as lowered the kunai that he had been holding under the bed sheets. He really wanted to plunge it deep into that short man's skull too, but him being the employer, he figured he'd have to wait until after they were paid.

"I know," spoke Haku with a bright smile on her face. "But if we kill Gato now then all the hunter ninjas will immediately come this way and find us. We still need Gato and the money he's going to pay us, so we need to be patient. 'All good things to those who wait,' as they say."

Zabuza growled and dove under the blankets a bit further. "I hate it when you're right." Haku just giggled as she carried on crushing the herbs she was crushing earlier. Zabuza might be called a Demon, but he was a real child sometimes.

**(Later that evening ...)**

"Gah!" shouted Naruto as he fell into the water once again. He had been at this exercise the entire day and couldn't walk on the water for more than 3 minutes before he fell back down into the cold liquid that was the ocean. He swam back to the dock and tried one more time. He channeled chakra to the soles of his feet and he started to walk around on the water. "Naruto? What are you doing?!"

Naruto momentarily lost his concerntration and lowered into the water slightly as he looked to the left to see the rest of his team making their way here before he fell under the water once again. "Damn it!" he shouted as he swam to the dock once more and got out, sending a small glare towards his pink haired team mate for distracting him.

As they went over to Naruto, they noticed he had foregone all his clothing except for his boxers. Sakura blushed slightly as she saw his face for the first time as he shook his hair free of the water, his whisker marks making him look more feral and exotic. "I was busy practising water walking until you guys distracted me," he said angrily, his Sharingan eye opening instinctively and spinning slowly, before he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Sorry guys, I'm just a bit frustrated."

"That's alright Naruto," spoke Sakura as she struggled to meet his blue eye, being careful not to stare into his red one. "We're just as exhausted as you are," she said as well, before smirking along with Sasuke. "But we both finished what we were trying to do, so we'll be joining you here tomorrow."

"Nice, so you made it all the way to the top Teme?" Seeing him nod, he gave his signature foxy grin that was infinitely more foxy without his mask on. His smile just seemed to raidiate cheerfulness.

The team of Genin, along with their Jounin-sensei, decided to call it a day and headed back inside to Tazuna's house. They only had about 3 days left before Zabuza would most likely be fully healed again, so they had to master this water walking exercise before then. If what Kakashi-sensei said was true, which it most likely was, then them completing this exercise would greatly improve their overall ninja abilities.

The team walked back inside to go eat supper, but missed the small boy that was listening to them the whole time from a window on the second floor, clutching to a picture frame as he stared out at the slowly descending sun of the horizon. 'They just don't get it! They're all going to die... Gato's just too strong, even for them...'

**(2 Days Later)**

Everyone was seated at the table and eating supper, Naruto listening to Sakura talk about what she had read so far about medical ninja, while Sasuke sat beside Naruto, eating his third bowl of rice, obviously still tired from the day's training. Kakashi was, as usual, busy reading his smut at the table with Tazuna, and Tsunami was quietly eating her food.

"Well, you guys are about as ready as you'll ever be to fight Zabuza," Kakashi said, not bothering to look up from his book. "The day after tomorrow, we're all going down to the bridge with Tazuna. I don't suspect there will be a fight tomorrow, but from the day after, be on your guard." The team of Genin just nodded before they went back to what they were doing a second ago.

Inari was sitting in his seat as he eyed all the ninja with a scowl on his face before he slammed his hands on the table and stood up while pushing his chair back. His face was lowered as his shadow covered his eyes, but if one was close enough you'd be able to see that tears were stinging the young boy's eyes. "Why? Why do you guys try so hard and act so happy and calm all the time?! No matter what you do, Gato's men will kill you! When facing the strong the weak will always fail," said Inari matter of factly, as if it was already decided that they would be killed.

"Your damn right about that," stated Naruto as he looked at Inari, getting everyone to look at him. "Gato and his men are weak. He's just a short prick with a lot of money, preying on the weak who don't have the strength or will to fight back anymore. But me and my team, we **_are_** strong, and we **_will_** defeat Gato. I give you my word on that. We will avenge Kaiza's death, and I won't allow his sacrifice to be for naught. We're not gonna give up. We're not like you."

Inari's tears began to fall as he heard the declaration Naruto made about him and his team being strong. He had thought the same thing when his father was still alive. He thought his father was strong, but then Gato came and killed him without even flinching. How was he supposed to just believe these ninja would be able to defeat Gato after something like that. "Well I'd hate to be like you! You guys are always joking and laughing, but it's people like you that don't know how hard life can really be!"

Naruto clenched his fists in anger as he glared at the small boy in front of him and lost his cool. It rarely happened that Naruto would lose his cool, but this attitude wasn't alien to the raven haired Uchiha. He had seen it before.

Naruto had tried to be reasonable, tried to be understanding; diplomacy had failed. He couldn't stand to listen to this kid anymore. "I know better than most how hard life can be," he spat angrily, speaking in a soft yet gruff tone. "Losing both my parents when I was younger, being shunned and scorned by my entire village because of something I had no control over. I know how hard life can be," he seethed out in anger as he stood up out of his chair. "But I didn't wallow in my own despair and cry all the time, or do the whole self pity thing. Dwelling on the past will dull one's future; those are some words of wisdom I impart unto thee," he spat angrily as he gave an over exaggerated bow before he headed for the door. He had most probably over reacted. And yes, he was arguing and attacking a small boy, but the boy had that a long time coming, so the sooner he accepted it, the better.

Inari was crying even harder than before, guilt and sadness filling up in his chest as he looked down at the floor. Sakura looked taken aback by the sudden out burst, but she was also feeling ashamed of herself. She had once been one of those people to be mean to Naruto. She didn't even remember when he had become her human punching bag back in the Academy, but he never held it against her and just acted like nothing ever happened. She could see now how much it had hurt him.

"Naruto, where are you going?" asked Kakashi as he watched his blond haired student grab the door handle to leave the house.

"I'm going for a walk," he said dejectedly as he opened the door and closed it slowly behind him. He was angry, yes, but he wasn't about to be destructive and start slamming doors and breaking things that weren't his. It was bad enough that he allowed himself to lose his cool like he just had. No, he was going to go be destructive where it didn't really matter.

After Naruto left, Sasuke stood up and made his way upstairs toward his bedroom, suddenly not that hungry anymore. Kakashi looked back at the family still sitting there as well as a still sobbing Inari, letting out a heavy sigh as he snapped his book shut, much to Tazuna's dismay. "I'm sorry about Naruto, but he hasn't had the prettiest childhood." Seeing the family's and Sakura's questioning gazes, he thought it would probably be a good idea to let them know what had happened to Naruto, and by proxy, Sasuke. "Naruto was adopted into Sasuke's family the day he was born, because his parents were killed in a tragic event that befell our village. They lived happily for 8 years as a family, until one night, the entire Uchiha Clan was massacred, the clan Naruto and Sasuke were from. That night they lost both their parents. I guess Naruto just got tired of crying and decided to do something about it." He shrugged his shoulders before he stood up and made his way up stairs as well, leaving a very depressed and distraught atmosphere around the kitchen table.

For most of the night, small explosions could be heard coming from the forest in which Team 7 had first gone to train. A sign that their blonde haired team mate was going through some explosive therapy.

**(The Next Morning)**

Haku was currently moving through the trees to a clearing where the medicinal herbs she needed could be found. Zabuza was healing well and would be ready to go tomorrow if she found the herbs she was looking for. She needed quite a few, and the sooner the better, so she decided to leave early in the morning.

Up ahead was the clearing she was looking for, but she frowned when she saw that a bit further up ahead, there was a clearing that was filled with smouldering trees and a light cloud of smoke. Her curiosity getting the better of her, once she made it to her clearing, she went on a bit further and found a blonde boy lying on the ground, sleeping soundly as his motionless body stared up at the sky.

Moving a little closer, she noticed that it was the Konoha ninja that killed Gozu and he was the one protecting Tazuna. She stood over his body and was contemplating on whether or not to kill him now. It would save them time and would mean one less enemy to deal with later. She crouched down and reached her hand out to him, but before she could touch him, something grabbed her wrist. She looked down to see the blond boy's blue eye staring at her curiously. "You'll catch cold if you stay out here like this," she said softly as she smiled down at him and patted herself on the back for the quick excuse.

Naruto found himself blushing deeply under his mask at the smile the girl wore as he stared into her chocolate brown eyes. She was extremely beautiful, wearing a sleeveless pink kimono and looked to be only a few years older than him. "Uh, yeah, hehe. Thanks I guess." Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarassment as he turned his gaze away from her. Curse his shyness.

The older girl giggled as she stood back up and dusted off her dress. "You're very welcome, uh..." she said slowly, tilting her head and looking at him curiously. "I don't believe I know your name?"

Naruto quickly straightened up and dusted himself off too, not wanting to look so terrible in front of this girl. "Uh, my name's Naruto, nice to meet you. What's your name?"

"Ah, Naruto-san, it's nice to meet you too," she said with a warm smile. "My name's Haku."

Naruto nodded his head and looked at the basket in her hand curiously before meeting her eyes again. "So, Haku-chan, what are you doing here this early in the morning?" he asked her as he forgot all about his embarassment, curiosity taking over his thoughts for the time being. It was a little odd to find a civilian woman wondering the forests at this time, so his curiosity was not misplaced.

"Oh, well I'm here to collect some herbs to help a friend of mine get better," she said as she gestured towards her basket. It was filled slightly with the herbs she was looking for, and the clearing she was supposed to be in had an abundance of the herb, so that's where she was going next.

"Mind if I help?" he asked. She had seemed like a pretty nice girl, and she had woken him up before he could get sick, even though he never remembered ever having gotten sick once before in his life. It was only natural to return the favour. The girl nodded in response as they slowly walked back to the other clearing in a comfortable silence. She set the basket down and knelt down in the field of herbs next to it, showing him one of the herbs she already had in her basket. "This is what the herb looks like, so if you could grab as much of these as possible, I would really appreciate it," she said warmly, her soft and sweet tone belying her apparent innocence.

Naruto nodded in the affirmative and immediately went about searching for the herb, not taking long to locate it at all. Naruto sat down on the ground and turned to look at the girl he was picking herbs for. "So, I know I've asked you this already, but what are you doing here looking for herbs? Why don't you just take your friend to a doctor or something?"

Haku's hand tensed at the question, now having to quickly think up an answer. If she remembered correctly, then... "That would've been the most viable option, but Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** doesn't really have any doctors, so I decided to rather just use these herbs." Naruto nodded his head and was about to speak again before Haku beat him to the punch. If she could just keep him talking, she could avoid any more compromising questions he might have. "So, Naruto-san, what were you doing out here last night anyway?"

Naruto looked apprehensive more a moment, not really knowing if he should say. As a ninja, he wasn't really supposed to just dish out any information to anyone that asked, even if the people did seem completely harmless. Spies were everywhere, but using his sonar jutsu, he was able to feel the area all around them, not finding any other presences in the area. He thought telling her would be okay. "Well, I'm a ninja, and I was out here training last night," he said impressively, flicking the metal of his hitai-ate as he rubbed the area under his nose in pride. It felt good to boast to someone who wasn't a ninja. They didn't really know any better, being civilians, so talking about ninja stuff with them was always entertaining.

Haku gave an impressed nod before looking back down and picking up another tuft of herbs. "You look really strong," she said warmly, causing said boy to rub the back of his head sheepishly. "Do you want to get stronger?"

Naruto nodded his head vigorously and carefully placed a handful of the plant in the basket. "Of course. I want to get strong enough so that I can become the Hokage one day," he declared proudly, his right hand finding its way over to his chest as he was ranting to Haku. "The Hokage is the strongest ninja in the whole village, and everybody respects and acknowledges him," he added as well, suspecting that Haku wouldn't know about the Hokage.

Haku tilted her head curiously as she stared back at him. "Is that why you want to become strong? For your village's recognition?" It was a genuine question, and she was truly curious as to his answer.

He held a finger to his chin and took on an exaggerated thinking pose. He slowly shook his head faced her again. "No. At first, that was the reason I wanted to be Hokage. But now... now I just want to protect the village."

Haku let a soft smile spread across her lips as she listened to him. "Ah. So Naruto-san, do you have anybody who is precious to you?" asked Haku seriously, looking down again to remove another sprig.

He furrowed his brow in thought as he listened to her question and began to think of everyone who was precious to him. Sasuke, Iruka-sensei, Hokage-Ojiisan, Teuchi-Ojiisan, Ayame-neechan. He had a lot of precious people now that he thought about it, and he could most definitely add Sakura-chan and Kakashi-sensei to his ever growing list of precious people. He nodded his head at Haku before she continued. "Then you will become strong. Because I believe, that when a person fights to protect someone precious to them, that is when they become truly strong."

Naruto took in every word as he looked at this girl with a new found respect and... awe? He didn't really care, he took those words to heart at that moment and decided he would live to protect his precious people. He would make those his words to live by. "I couldn't agree more, Haku-chan" he said softly as he looked down at the ground with a warm smile, absent mindedly placing another sprig of herbs into the basket.

Haku slowly stood up from her spot on the ground and dusted herself off, picking up her basket as she looked down at Naruto. "Then there will be no limit to how strong you can become, Naruto-kun. Truly strong," Haku said as she turned around and began to walk away. She turned around before she left the clearing. "Oh, and by the way... I'm a boy," she said cheerfully as she looked at him with a bright smile.

Naruto stared wide eyed at Haku for several seconds before he shook himself of his stupor and grinned under his mask. "Nice try, you almost got me there Haku-**_chan_**. You're way too pretty to be a boy," he said as he watched her carefully. Seeing her blush got him to grin wider as he confirmed that she was indeed, a she. No boy would blush at being called pretty. At least, he didn't think they would.

"I can understand why you say you're a boy though. With Gato's thugs running around this island, it could be dangerous for a girl," he said with a frown as he clenched his fists. Damn that Gato. He needed to be taken down. He was destroying this village a little more each day, and something needed to be done about it.

Haku silently thanked Kami as the boy came up with an excuse for her. She quickly nodded her head at him. "Yes, Gato's men treat the woman here as sex objects, so it is in my favour to pose as a boy." She turned around and waved at him. "Don't worry about me though, I'll be fine. I'll see you again soon Naruto-kun." With that, she left the clearing faster than Naruto could stop her as he watched her fading silhouette disappear into the trees.

Naruto turned around and began to slowly make his way back to Tazuna's house. 'When a person fights to protect someone precious to them...' Naruto smiled softly under his mask as he looked up into the sky ahead of him. "That's when you become truly strong." Naruto walked back in silent contemplation of the truth behind those words, sadly thinking back to a time when his family was still alive.

**_FLASHBACK_**

**_It was late in the evening in Konoha, and Naruto and his mother Mikoto were walking hand in hand as they made their way back to the Uchiha compound after going to see the Hokage on behalf of Fugaku. He had been out on a mission with the Police Force, so Mikoto was chosen to go in his stead, Naruto deciding to tag along on the last minute too. _**

**_It had been a fairly quick meeting, stating that the Uchiha Clan Head had to be present for an important gathering taking place at the Hokage's Conference Room several days from now; a room that was only ever used for extremely important clan related matters that could effect the village as a whole. _**

**_On their way back home, Naruto couldn't help but keep his foxy grin from leaving his face. He had been attending the Academy for little over 3 months now, and with even more of his time being spent on shinobi training, he only ever really saw his mother on weekends or at family meals. The rest of the time he was either training or too tired to do anything but sleep. _**

**_That's why, when Naruto had the day off from the Academy due to a shinobi school holiday, he jumped at the opportunity to get to spend some time with his mother once again. He loved his mother dearly and cherished every moment he had with her. He didn't know what kind of life he would have lived if he didn't have a mother. Sporting a sad smile, he looked up at his mom's face and gave a small tug at her hand. "Thanks Kaachan."_**

**_Mikoto looked down at her son with an intrigued expression as she saw the sad look on his face, prompting her to stop and step off to the side into an alleyway. "What for Naruto-kun? What's wrong?"_**

**_Naruto felt a small lump form in the back of his throat as he struggled to keep back the tears forming in his eyes. He looked back up at her with his cerulean blue eyes that were glissening in the moonlight with unshed tears. "For just being there... for taking me in when my real parents were killed... for adopting me and calling me son... for giving me the chance to call you Kaachan," he muttered softly as he bit his lip to keep from bursting out in tears right then and there. _**

**_Mikoto's eyes became wet with tears as she lunged forward and gently grabbed onto Naruto, pulling him into her arms as she sobbed happily over his body while embracing him lovingly. "You're so very welcome... Naruto-kun," she managed to get out in between sobs. "I hold you... very dear to me... Naruto-kun. I treasure you with... all my heart. Please... don't ever forget that," she begged as she squeezed him a little tighter. _**

**_Naruto hugged a little tighter as well, as he squeezed his eyes tightly, letting a lone tear fall from his eye. "How could I ever forget about you Kaachan... you've been there for me since the beginning... and I will be there for you if you ever need me to."_**

**_Mikoto pulled away from Naruto as she clutched his head and gave him a long kiss on his forehead. She slowly got back onto her feet and dusted her skirt off before she wiped her eyes clean and sniffled a couple times. "Come Naruto-kun, let's-..." She was cut off as Naruto was pulled away from her by two large arms, while at the same time she was pinned to the ground by the weight of a huge man. _**

**_Looking up, she could barely make out the face of the burly man, but she could smell the alcohol that was radiating off of every fibre in his body. "Hey there," slurred the man as he swayed slightly over her straddled body. "I'm looking for a *hiccup* good time. Think you could help me out?" _**

**_She could make out his lecherous grin under the dim light from the moon. She cursed herself for not sensing anyone coming. She had herself taken off active duty as a kunoichi ten years ago, and her skill had clearly diminished over the time. She thrashed against the man's hold on her and tried to get herself free, but she just didn't have the strength to move a muscle underneath him; the man was heavy enough as it was. _**

**_She quickly glanced to the left and saw that there was another man that was holding on to her son, one arm holding him down while the other was gripped over his mouth to prevent him from screaming and making a noise. She could see him looking at her with hopelessness and fear, not for his life though, but for hers. She tried to scream out for help, but was only rewarded with a hit in the face by her aggressor. _**

**_It was hopeless. No matter how much she thrashed and pushed and shoved, the man on top of her was physically bigger and stronger, and was more than enough to keep her down. The tears began to fall as she fell into a state of despair. Why now? Why now when her husband was away for the first time in years? Curse Murphy's Law!_**

**_Naruto was trying but failing miserably to get out of the grip he was in. The man was just way too big for him, too strong for him to overcome. He looked back towards his mother to see the despair in her eyes. He watched as the man slowly began to run his free hand over her wet cheeks; wet from the tears that were now falling freely from her eyes. 'No! Kaachan! Why?! Why am I so weak?!' _**

**_Naruto looked up one more time as he saw the burly man move his free hand towards his mother's chest area. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw as he started to try and shake his head. 'No! I won't let her get hurt! I won't allow it! I won't...' Naruto began to feel a strange feeling within his body. His chakra was almost feeling as if it was getting warmer. He could feel this 'new' type of chakra growing inside him, awakening for the first time after laying dormant within him. _**

**_He got a feel for this new chakra and began to release it from his body, lighting up the area around him. He heard the loud screaming of a man and found that he was no longer being held down by anyone. The man that was holding down his mother looked up at Naruto in petrfied shock, before his visage twisted into one of blind rage. He let go of his mother as he ran at Naruto with pure hatred in his eyes. _**

**_Seeing the man coming at him, Naruto quickly got into his taijutsu stance that he had been learning for a year now and ducked under the man's punch as he sent his right fist rocketing into the man's solar plexus. The large man let out a horrified scream as he clutched at his chest, thrashing around on the ground in an attempt to relieve the pain. _**

**_Naruto quickly cut the flow of this 'new' chakra and ran over to his mother, quickly checking her over as he grabbed her bridal style and began roof jumping away, albeit with a large amount of difficulty. "Kaachan! Are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Must I take you to the hospital?!"_**

**_Mikoto clutched to his chest as they were roof jumping and held on as if her life depended on it, literally and figuratively. "I-I'm f-f-fine N-Naruto-kun," she stuttered between sobs as she clutched to his chest tighter. "I'm fine now," she said in a whisper. _**

**_They left the alleyway that was now littered with the two men, one thrashing around on the ground, clutching to his burning chest that was steaming from the heat; while the other lay motionless on the ground, his clothes shriveled and steaming around two points of impact. His liver, and his heart. _**

**_"As long as I'm with you, I'll never let anything happen to you," Naruto whispered to himself as he looked down at his mother's sleeping form, obviously physically and mentally exhausted from the experience. He decided to take her to the hospital instead, just as a precautionary measure. "That's a promise, dattebayo."_**

**_FLASHBACK END_**

He looked around and found that he had traveled all the way back to Tazuna's house. It was still fairly early in the morning, and judging by the position of the sun, it was most likely around 9 o'clock.

As he neared the house the door to said house opened up and the rest of Team 7 along with Tazuna walked out onto the dock. They quickly noticed Naruto making his way back and all let out a sigh of relief. "There you are," said Sakura as she smiled sadly at him. "We were just about to come look for you Naruto."

Naruto blushed in embarassment and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that." He looked towards Tazuna and bowed low at the man. "Sorry about last night Tazuna-san, it was immature of me to act out last night at snap Inari like that, and I sincerely apologise."

Naruto had been so exhausted and tired from the day's training, that he had just lost the will to keep calm and thrashed out at the first thing that presented itself, which unfortunately happened to be Inari. He knew that Inari's attitude needed an adjustment, but there were better ways to go about it than shouting out at the child and sending him into tears. He must have looked like a monster.

"Please, don't apologise Naruto. I know you have had a hard life," he said, momentarily surprising Naruto that he knew this, though Naruto chalked that up to Kakashi-sensei's doing of playing peace keeper, and trying to lighten up the mood for people to be able to understand why Naruto had gone off at Inari like he did.

Naruto looked down ashamedly. "It still doesn't excuse my actions." Naruto looked back at the house before he turned back to Tazuna. "When we get back later today I'll apologise to Inari and Tsunami-san. I really didn't mean to hurt him or his feelings."

Tazuna nodded knowingly at Naruto as he, along with Team 7, followed Tazuna in a protective formation as he lead the way to the bridge. They would be watching him from today, and he would be able to have his Kage Bunshin continue working to master water walking while he stayed atop the bridge. He was a multi-tasker extraordinaire, taking the act of multi-tasking to the extreme. 'Man, you gotta love Kage Bunshin,' he thought with an amused smile.

**(Tazuna's House - Later that evening...)**

Team 7 and Tazuna made their way back home after a horribly long and boring day. Nothing out of the ordinary took place at the bridge, besides the multitude of Naruto's that were running around on the ocean's surface at the end of the bridge. Seeing the clones fighting each other while working to master the water walking chakra control technique was a great form of entertainment for the workers there, something that managed to lift their spirits a bit.

The people of Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** had all but lost hope. Having their last hero ripped out from right in front of them was a devestating blow to their fighting wills and spirits, something that needed to be rikindled. Something that Team 7 would help rectify.

Upon entering the house, everyone moved into the kitchen and got a seat around the table as they waited for Tsunami to finish preparing supper, with Sakura and Naruto offering their assisstance in any way possible. Tsunami gladly let them help, Sakura with the stirring of the pot while Naruto was used as manual labour, being asked to set up the table.

Inari entered the kitchen and Naruto took note of the small boy's hesitance to come to the table and sit down. Naruto walked up to the boy and bent down on his haunched as he looked at Inari face to face. "I'm sorry Inari. The way I snapped at you yesterday was uncalled for, and I just want to say I'm sorry."

Naruto watched as Inari seemed to be thinking something over before he looked up from under his hat and smiled at the older boy. "I'm sorry too Naruto. I shouldn't have said those things to you guys." Inari clenched his small fists as he spoke determinedly. "I want to help you guys."

Naruto just waved him off as he stood up and put a hand on the boy's head. "No sweat Inari. We all make mistakes; we're only human after all. And if you really want to help us, try believing in us and having some faith. Believe in our strength to get the job done." Naruto grinned under his mask before he continued. "Besides, with us on the bridge, someone's going to need to stay here to protect your mother. Do you think you can do that for us?"

Inari quickly nodded his head as he gave an overly serious salute to Naruto and stood at attention. "Of course. I'll do my best."

Naruto smiled softly as he looked down at Inari again pulled off his hat, whereafter he took a piece of string and tied it around Inari's forehead, much like he used to do when Kaiza was alive. "If something is truly important to you... even if it's heart breaking... even if it's sorrowful... you keep on trying and trying, even if you lose your life, you keep on protecting it with these two arms. Then, even if you die, you leave behind the proof that you are a man... forever..." Naruto quoted Kaiza's words that were framed up in Inari's bedroom word for word. They were true words with a deep meaning, and it was very similiar to Haku's belief, he thought afterwords.

Inari began to tear up again and started furiously trying to wipe them away. "Agh, I-I promised myself I wouldn't c-cry anymore..." sobbed Inari as he continued to wipe furiously at his watery eyes. He felt a hand on his head and looked up to see Naruto looking down at him with a genuinely happy look in his eye.

"It's okay to cry when you're happy Inari," Naruto said as he ruffled the boy's hair under his hand. Naruto took a step back and motioned behind him towards the table. "Food's about done, so come and take a seat while I set you a spot."

Inari nodded slowly as he wiped away the tears on his face with a content smile on his face. He truly believed that Naruto could defeat Gato now. It was a certified fact in Inari's mind that Naruto would defeat Gato and give Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)** back to the people who lived there.

Dinner that night was much more enjoyable than the dinner of the previous nights. Everybody ate and laughed together as Naruto regaled them in some of his more daring pranks back in Konoha. It was a pleasant evening to say the least, and it was the type of evening that Team 7 felt they needed to re-introduce to all the oppressed people of Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**, so that everyone from this village could enjoy times like this again.

They would take down Gato... A man like Gato needed to be taken down more out of principle than anything... He was just one of those people who were better off to the rest of the Elemental Nations dead. It was that simple, no matter how cruel it sounded.

**(The Next Morning)**

Kakashi, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were all leaning against the wall of Tazuna's house as they were waiting for their client. From today was the day that Zabuza would most likely be fully healed from their first encounter, so from today all the ninja would be accompanying Tazuna to the bridge to watch over him.

They were all mentally preparing themselves for the encounter that was inevitably coming to their client's front door, so to speak. They had all remembered how they had frozen up against Zabuza the first time they fought, although it was more Sakura than her two male team mates. They seemed to be so much more collected and calmer when facing down such a powerful enemy.

Sakura didn't want to freeze up and feel helpless like that ever again. She didn't want to be the reason that perhaps her team mates got killed. She shook her heads to clear those thoughts as she clenched her fists. 'Never again will I be such a burden. Never again will I be the reason my team mates get hurt.'

Although she hated to admit it, the rude awakening she received from their first encounter with the Demon Brothers was exactly what she needed. If she were completely honest with herself, she had been slacking somewhat in her skills as a kunoichi. She had been so focused on garnering the attention of her raven haired team mate, that she didn't once stop to consider the possible consequences of her actions.

She had always believed that, since Sasuke was now on her team, and since he was so strong, he would always be there to protect her like a knight in shining armour if the need ever arose. Thinking back to her naivete of those times made her scowl. She was willing to let her team mate constantly put himself in danger just to save her, as if she were a damsel in distress. She was selfish back then. And she knew it. But that was why she had been grateful for the opportunity she had been given and to have survived it; so that she could right the error of her ways.

They had been training for the past week to be able to better handle themselves when the time came to face Zabuza again. They would be nowhere near strong enough to take Zabuza on by themselves, but they would have a few new tricks up their sleeves to throw him off long enough so that Kakashi could. The first attack was always a feint after all.

Kakashi regarded his cute little Genin all lined up beside him as he stared down at his book, seemingly reading it. In actuality, he was focused on his three charge's as they all leaned against the side of their house with varying emotions playing across their faces, although there was one emotion that they all held. Determination. They were determined to prove themselves worthy of the title ninja. But most of all, they were determined to take down Gato and free this country of its oppressor.

"So, how are you all feeling?" asked Kakashi more out of principle as a sensei than anything else. He already knew how they were feeling, more or less. "There's a very high possibility that we'll be faced with a battle against Zabuza once again." He saw them all nod before he looked ahead and continued. "I just want to let you guys know that what ever happens, I have complete faith in your abilities as ninja and I'm proud of how far you've come thus far," he said as he turned their way and gave them an eye smile.

They all smiled gently at that as Naruto turned to look at his sensei. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei... that means a lot coming from you," spoke Naruto with a genuine smile. He had just been complimented on his abilities by one of his idols. Naruto really looked up to Kakashi, and although it didn't always seem like it, Naruto held a high respect for the man. Kakashi and the Yondaime Hokage were his two heroes. One who was the strongest ninja in the whole village and admired by all when he was alive, and the other was an extremely strong ninja as well, although his beliefs were what Naruto had developed his respect for.

Kakashi and Naruto sensed the presence of somebody coming and looked towards the door of the house as it opened to reveal Tazuna in his usualy attire, ready to move it seemed. "Hey, Tazuna-ojiisan, you ready to leave or what?" questioned Naruto as he pushed off the wall to stand in front of their master bridge builder. "We're burning daylight out here," he said sarcastically.

Tazuna chuckled at the ninja in front of him and moved forward to the front of the group. "Yeah, I'm ready to get a move on. The sooner this bridge gets done, the better, so let's move then shall we?" He began to walk off with everyone sans Naruto in tow.

**"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)."** They turned around to see 15 clones puff into existence in a large cloud of white smoke, all scatterring around the house defensively. The first two transformed into pot plants beside the front door, several took to the water and hid under the dock the house was situated on, while the remaining clones took to the roof to keep a better lookout and diguised themselves as roof tiles. "Call it paranoia," Naruto said defensively at seeing their confused looks. "But better safe than sorry."

Kakashi eye smiled at him and then pulled out his signature orange book. "Good idea Naruto. Gato will more than likely try to take out Tazuna and his family as well while we're at the bridge, so incase of any of his thugs showing up, your clones should be more than enough to handle them."

Naruto nodded his head as he moved to get back in formation with his team as they headed for the bridge. It was a fairly long walk there, so the sooner they left, the better; or so the saying goes... However, that was not going to be the case once they actually arrived at the bridge.

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**AN: Okay, so that's chapter 7 =) Left you guys on a sort of not cliff hanger, but do not fret, because i will be posting a double header today, to make up for the long wait i took to update in the first place. I don't know how well i wrote this chapter, i didn't really feel to good about this one, but i'd like to hear about your guys' opinion on it.**

**Also, in the flashback, can anybody guess how Naruto defeated those two drunks? (*A hint - it isn't the Kyuubi's chakra, so see if you can catch that one - i'll let you know if you do ;) And i used a phrase which i think was coined by Kenchi618, the phrase about the first move is always a feint, so that is property of him i guess :)  
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**Okay, so, now, i wanted to ask you guys as the readers a question about the direction of this fic, since you guys are the actual one's i'm writing this for. What do you guys want to happen to Sasuke? As in, way in the future, like after Chunin Exams, usually about the time when Sasuke defects. Do you want Sasuke to defect and perhaps have a reunion with Naruto later on, do you want him to stay in the leaf and maybe go with Naruto on the training trip, shoudl he go with someone else on a different training trip, like with Kakashi perhaps, do you want me to actually write the training trip or have a timeskip (i'd prefer a time skip to be honest)**

**These are all questions i want some answers to, and then based on your responses, i'll create a poll and get some voting going, and see where you guys want to go with this. So, thanks for reading, until next time...**

**Justin**


	8. The Battle of the Bridge

**AN: Hey guys, welcome back to the next instalment of The Flaming Maelstrom :) Here is the second chapter that i promised you guys for taking so long to update. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I tried my best to write as good a fight scene as i could, nad i think i did prett well, but it's not really what i think, it's what you guys think, so drop a review and let me know how my writing is, so that i can try and improve on my fight scenes in the future :)**

**So, i'll not keep you guys any longer, here's chapter 8... =)**

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**Chapter 8: The Battle of the Bridge**

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**_"Have you prepared and set up the ambush?"_** shouted the voice of an extremely irate Gato over the wireless radio. **_"Is the ambush prepared Zabu-..."_** His voice was cut off mid-rant as Zabuza dropped the wireless to the ground and crushed it beneath his feet.

Zabuza clicked his tongue at the gall of their short shit of an employer. Who did he think he was, addressing the Demon of the Mist in such a manner. He was either very stupid or very strong to dare try such a thing, but Zabuza knew for a fact that it was the former. Gato bought all his strength in the form of weak thugs and bandits. But they all pailed in comparison to the strength of a ninja.

"Haku, are you ready for this?" asked Zabuza from his spot on the bridge as he looked over the handywork of his subordinate in taking care of all the civilian builders. He frowned when he realised that not one of them were actually dead, but rather all knocked out with miniscule injuries. "You're still as soft as always, in that ruthless kind of way of yours. How ironic that someone who abhor's death can be so ruthlessly efficient at subduing their targets when ordered to kill." He shook his head at that. She would not kill anyone unless directly ordered by him, and even when he did order her to kill, she still found a way to incapacitate her target rather than send them to the afterlife. She was the ultimate tool.

"Of course, Zabuza-sama," said Haku calmy as she slowly placed on her fake hunter ninja mask. "And I will be what ever you need me to be, Zabuza-sama." She was forever indebted to this man, so being his undyingly loyal tool was the least she could do for him. She owed him at least that much.

"That's what I like to hear, Haku." Zabuza smirked. They would kill the bridge builder and get their pay from Gato, and they would kill Kakashi and his brats for sport; perhaps trade their body's in for the bounty's they held. The body's of the Copy Ninja and a full blooded Uchiha would sell for a lot of ryo to the right buyers. "Don't hold back in this next fight. Our opponent is Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan, and two of his brats possess the Sharingan as well. I didn't get to see much of that pink-haired one, but she didn't seem to be too much of a threat."

Haku nodded in understanding. She had been watching their first fight in secret from the trees after Kakashi had been captured in the water prison, and was silently gaugeing their skills in case their was another confrontation, which was highly probable. She knew not to underestimate them for even a second, lest she be subjected to the same fate as her late sibling students, the Demon Brothers. "Understood. I will not fail you, Zabuza-sama."

Zabuza nodded in the affirmative as he brought his hands into the tiger hand seal. "Let's get this show on the road then... **Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu)."** He allowed a thin blanket of mist to cover the entire bridge, enough to allow anybody entering the bridge building area to notice the bodies littering the ground. They hid themselves within some building equipment as they waited for their targets to arrive. 'I'll take you down for sure this time, Kakashi...'

**(With Team 7)**

They traveled to Tazuna's work place on the same route they had used the previous day, cutting through the town to get to the start of the bridge. It was just as saddening walking through the town today as it had been the previous day. So many villagers littered the streets, bundled up in blankets as they struggled to survive the cold of the morning and night.

Most of the shops that were located on their street were boarded up with planks of wood, owners being unable to uphold their business due to lack of a market. Listening to Tazuna's stories of their home town and actually seeing them with their own eyes was a helluva lot different. It was truly an appalling sight, and it never got any easier to walk through their.

They continued on towards the bridge with heavy hearts, moving with haste as they came upon the mist covered bridge. That was odd. The mist never came up this far onto the bridge. All their eyes widened in shock as they got closer however. "Wh-what's happened here..." Tazuna choked out in disbelief as he dropped his hat from his hands. He looked around the entrance to the bridge to see the bodies of all his fellow builders lying scattered along the ground. "Who could've done something like this?"

Kakashi looked around and narrowed his eye at the scene set out in front of them. The bodies were all motionless, but there was no blood splatters of any kind on the surface of the bridge, so it lead Kakashi to believe that were still alive.

'I wonder...' Frowning in thought, Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate slightly to allow his Sharingan to look around. Looking around the bridge, his theory proved to be correct, as all the mist around him was created with chakra. His vision was completely hampered, only being able to see directly in front of him. Looking on any further and all he was able to see was the blue hue of the chakra signature all around him. "Looks like it's begun. Defensive formation," Kakashi said seriously as he reached out his senses into the the thickening mist to try and compensate for the lack of sight his Sharingan was now causing. 'Nice move Zabuza... preventing me from using my Sharingan to its full effectiveness by thickening the mist. It's a lot thicker than the last time we fought...'

"We meet again, Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan," came the ominous, disembodied voice of Zabuza as the mist thickened even further. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to this encounter." He let loose a dark chuckle that seemed to echo throughout the entire area. "I see you're still allowing those brats to tag along... that's not very responsible of you in my opinion, dragging three Genin along to a Jounin level fight."

The air around all the Genin and Kakashi got eerily cold as 10 Zabuza's appeared from the mist and surrounded them on all sides, all wielding their massive zanbatou's. Tazuna was standing in the middle of the team's defensive formation and was getting increasingly worried at the sight of so many Zabuza's again. He momentarily lost faith in his hired help and new friends, but upon seeing all their calm looking faces, he steeled himself to the fact that they had this covered. They hadn't let him down once since he had hired them.

He thought back to the words of the blonde haired shinobi standing defensively to his left, the words he had given Tazuna while they were traveling in the boat. **_Naruto turned around to face Tazuna and his one eye visibly softened. He allowed a soft smile to form under his mask as he stared at Tazuna's lowered head. "Don't you worry about a thing Tazuna-ojiisan. We'll help you free this city, no matter what it takes! Or die trying, dattebayo." _**He looked on ahead and steeled himself for the battle to come, pushing his fears out of his mind. 'I'll put my faith in you, Naruto...'

Trailing his eye over all the Zabuza's surrounding them, Naruto looked to his right and stared into the eyes of his brother, as they gave each other a small nod. Both Genin gave a small side-long glance to their Jounin-sensei standing in front of them as he met their gazes and gave them an almost imperceptible nod as well. Not needing to be informed twice, Naruto retrieved his two trench knives and held them firmly in a reverse grip while Sasuke pulled out a kunai and held it out in front of him.

In a show of impressive speed for Genin, Naruto and Sasuke dashed left and right respectively, taking out all the surrounding Zabuza clones with their swift and precise attacks and slashes. Naruto and Sasuke skidded slightly as they stopped back in their starting points, holding their defensive formation as the cuts on all the Zabuza's finally spurted water and collapsed to the ground all around them, drenching the floor beneath their feet.

Zabuza calmly walked out from deeper within the mist as he clapped his hands slowly and gave a soft chuckle. "Well would you look at that... they saw through my **Mizu Bunshins (Water Clones)."** He slowed to a stop once he was within their eyesight and looked on at the one-eyed Jounin with an amused expression. "My how you're brats have grown... but I suppose they must be somewhat decent considering they took down the Demon Brothers single handedly."

He furrowed his brow at that thought and frowned. The Demon Brothers were at least Chunin level, and if these brats had taken each one down by themselves, then they were a lot better than their young disposition's suggested. He looked between each Genin's visage to see that each one of them held no fear in their eyes. They were all relatively at ease, their posture's not showing the nervousness and hesitance that they once held; particularly the pink haired girl. Were they that confident in their own abilities? Or perhaps they were just being too confident; maybe even borderline arrogant.

He narrowed his eyes at the ninja in front of him before he felt a presence appear from behind him, prompting him to smirk. "Nice of you to finally join me," he said all too cheerfully as the fake hunter ninja from before strode up to the side of Zabuza.

Kakashi's eye narrowed as he spotted the Kiri hunter ninja, proving that their theory and assumption of Zabuza working with the hunter ninja were correct. But nevertheless, he felt that his Genin were more than able to handle the fake hunter ninja while he tackled Zabuza.

"I apologise Zabuza-sama," the hunter ninja replied from beneath her mask, leaning in towards Zabuza and continuing in a whisper. "But the tags are set incase they try to flee. One way or another, we will have the bridge builder's head by the end of this, and then we will have the money from Gato to finance your dream."

Haku was a little bit apprehensive about having to kill Tazuna; such was the nature of someone who was inherently 'too soft', as Zabuza would often say to her. But, when it came to helping Zabuza realise his dream of overthrowing Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage, and taking the position for himself to put an end to the bloodline war, she would gladly be the killer he needed her to be. She was eternally indebted to him. It was no question whether she would do exactly what he wanted of her. 'Even if it means I have to kill Naruto-kun and his team mates,' she thought apprehensively, clenching her fists at her sides. She couldn't get cold feet now. She had to do this for her master; '... for Zabuza-sama.'

Zabuza nodded his head as he continued to stare at the silver haired Jounin in front of him, his trio of Genin flanking him as they stood defensively around Tazuna. He didn't need to look up at Kakashi's face to know that his Sharingan was already staring dangerously back at him, with his eye's tomoes revolving around his pupil. He wisely chose not to look up to confirm or deny his thoughts, deciding to rather glare at his torso. "It looks like you may have a rival in speed Haku," he said softly as he stared at the raven haired Uchiha before setting his gaze back on the Jounin. "I'll leave the brats to you; but Kakashi is mine."

Haku nodded her head as she watched Zabuza reach behind him and grip loosely on his Kubikiribocho, his eyes taking on an excited glint. Taking this as her cue, Haku moved off to the other end of the bridge through an area where the mist was thinner, deciding to take her fight to the unfinished side of the bridge.

Kakashi watched intently as the hunter ninja left their immediate area and went to stand off further along the bridge, staring back at the ninja with her masked expression. "Sasuke, Naruto, go after the hunter ninja. I'm trusting you two to take care of him," he said seriously without turning to face them as he continued to watch Zabuza. "Sakura, fall back a little with Tazuna and protect him. I know that you probably want to help Sasuke and Naruto out, but someone has to keep watch over the client. I'm going to handle Zabuza, so keep your distance, and keep your guard up. This is what you guys have been training for. I have absolute faith in you," he said genuinely as he glanced back at them for the first time since he started talking and flashed them an eye smile before turning deathly serious and rounding back on Zabuza. "Now go!"

Not needing to be told twice, his Genin sprang into action, Sasuke and Naruto dashing over in the hunter ninja's direction through the thin section of mist, while Sakura motioned Tazuna back a little as Kakashi moved forward to take on Zabuza. Someone was going to die on this bridge today, that much was certain. It was just a question of who...

**(With Sasuke and Naruto)**

Sasuke and Naruto skidded to a stop in front of the masked hunter ninja and watched as he calmly stood in front of them, not moving so much as a muscle as they faced off against each other.

Haku clasped her hands together, her long sleeves concealing them both as she stood motionlessly, staring at them through the slits in her mask. "We want the bridge builder, not you, so just give him to us, and we won't need to kill you." Haku knew that they were being paid to protect the bridge builder, and the chances of them actually giving him up were next to none, but ever the reluctant killer, Haku felt she should at least try.

"Just save it," started Sasuke as he narrowed his eyes at the hunter ninja in front of him and sneered. "We don't need your mercy."

Haku kept her face expressionless, not that they could see, and gave it one last try. "You're making a mistake. You might be fast, but you're no match for my speed. I **_will_** kill you."

Sasuke scoffed as Naruto put his hands in his pockets and looked straight into the slits of the hunter ninja's mask. "We're not gonna back down. We promised we'd protect the bridge builder, and that's just what we're going to do."

Haku's eyes narrowed from behind her mask as she looked at these kids in front of her. "Very well then..." She separated her hands from inside her sleeves and pulled them out to her sides, each hand now clutching onto 3 senbon each, a sight that immediately set the 2 Genin on edge.

They reached for their thigh pouches and pulled out a kunai each, bringing it up quickly as they had to parry the senbon that was thrown at them with speed and precision accuracy. They narrowed their eyes as Haku began going through hand signs. But their eyes widened in surprise and horror as she started doing hand seals, but with one hand, before slamming her foot on the ground. **"Hijutsu: Sensatsu Suishou (Secret Jutsu: A Thousand Needles of Death)."**

Hundreds of senbon needles began to form all around the pair from the water surrounding them, hovering in mid air and poised to strike at them in a moments notice. The boys' eyes widened a little more at the sight of all the water needles positioning themselves to strike them down, leaving no path for escape.

On mental command, Haku sent the hoards of water senbon down at the pair of Genin, hoping to quickly incapacitate them without having to do any fatal damage. Depsite having threatened them with death, she just had to try and take them down without inflicting mortal wounds. It was just who she was, and she couldn't change who she was, no matter how hard she tried.

Thinking quickly in the dire situation they were faced with, the boys' eyes darted around the bridge they were standing on and landed on some building equipment lying around the edges. They both executed a fast **Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution Jutsu)**, effectively dodging the fast approaching needles set to impale them.

'They are a lot faster than what I initially thought. I guess it's time for me to get serious...' Allowing the water from her previous jutsu to dissipate and fall to the ground, she found her foes once again lining up in front of her in ready stances, kunai held defensively in front of their bodies. "This will be the end of you two. I am truly sorry for what I am about to do, but I must obey Zabuza-sama." With her part said, she once again began going through her unique one handed seals at an impressive speed.

**"Hijutsu: Makyō Hyōshō (Secret Jutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors)."** The area around the side-by-side Genin grew icy cold, their exhaled breaths condensing as soon as the air left their mouths. Before long, thick mirrors made of ice began to form all around the pair, before 21 mirrors could be seen surrounding the two Genin in a giant dome of ice. Haku dropped the last hand seal she was holding and stepped forward into one of the mirrors, each mirror immediately taking on a reflection of Haku.

"W-what is this jutsu?" questioned Naruto through a slight shiver, glancing around at all the hunter nin's that were now staring back at the pair of Genin through the thin slits in those masks. "I've never heard of or seen anything like this before."

Sasuke just nodded his head as he listened to his brother while looking around as well, noticing the gaps in between each mirror. "Yeah, me neither, but this jutsu seems to have a flaw. We should try and escape through the gaps in between the mirrors," he suggested softly, not taking his eyes off each hunter nin.

Naruto nodded his head and tightened his grip on his kunai, narrowing his eye as he continued to stare at the first mirror, the one which Haku had merged into. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the kunai whizzing at the mirror, turning heel and running for the nearest gap with Sasuke. "Now's our chance Sasu-..."

Just as they were a few steps away from reaching their escape route, a hail of senbon flashed through the air and imbedded themselves all around the pair, several senbon managing to score direct hits on their upper backs and legs. They instantly halted their dash and jumped back into the centre of the dome, glaring at all the images of the hunter nin that were holding 3 senbon in each hand, ready to let fly with another salvo.

"So, this is what he meant by true speed..." breathed out Naruto, his eye traveling left and right to keep track of each hunter nin. They had run for that gap as fast as they could, even going so far as to send a bit of chakra to their legs, but no dice. The hunter nin seemed to be faster than even that. "These mirrors must be what's allowing his speed..." muttered Naruto, stepping back until he was shoulder to shoulder with his brother.

"... so if we can destroy them, we'll be able to stop his jutsu," Sasuke finished, now understanding where Naruto was going with this. They were Uchihas and both were Katon users, so technically speaking, they felt that they held some measure of advantage over the Hyoton user; something they were planning to exploit right this very moment. Sasuke gave his brother's shoulder an impercebtible nudge, eliciting a small nod from him as they both readied themselves for an attack.

On some unspoken cue, they both began going through hand seals for what they felt would be the perfect jutsu to diffuse the hunter nin's current one. Finishing on the Tiger hand seal, both teens brought their hands up to their mouths and exhaled sharply, putting as much chakra as possible into their jutsu's without inflicting internal damage. **"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!"**

Naruto and Sasuke launched both fireballs at a single mirror in front of the pair, their respective fireballs colliding and merging into one massive explosion, causing the flames to begin burning white hot as they licked at the ice-crafted mirrors. The flames lasted for several seconds before finally dying down, revealing the scorched bridge from beneath and the perfectly untouched ice mirrors from the front-... "Wait, what?!" breathed Sasuke in disbelief, panting ever so slightly from the mass chakra-induced fire storm combo that he and his brother just created. "That attack should've melted those ice mirrors with ease, vaporised them even!"

Naruto was too shocked to answer his brother's disbelieving questions, unable himself, to comprehend how those mirrors could have withstood the heat that was radiating off of those flames. Clearly they weren't hot enough, but seriously, how much hotter could they have possibly made it?! The flames were at the beginning stages of turning white hot... seriously.

'That was quite a powerful Katon jutsu. It took a lot of my chakra to maintain the ice mirrors through the brunt of that attack,' thought Haku in silent respect, watching as the pair of Genin in front of her were breathing a little heavier as well. 'Now's my chance, while they're still catching their breath...'

Haku withdrew another set of senbon from... Kami alone knows where... and immediately began raining senbon after senbon at the two Genin, managing to embed several more of the steel needles in their legs and arms, causing them extreme discomfort and hampering their movements somewhat. Despite all the senbon needles that she was continuing to throw, her 2 foes eventually began dodging every weapon that was thrown their way, prompting Haku to hold off on her offensive to try and find a logical reason as to how they were suddenly avoiding each senbon with practised ease.

Both Genin welcomed the interval, making quick work of removing as many of the needles that riddled their bodies as they could. Haku watched the pair with a calculating gaze, looking for the source of their new-found speed, before making contact with their eyes and widening her's ever so slightly under her mask. The raven-haired boy's eyes were now blood red with 2 tomoe fixed around each pupil, while Naruto had raised his hitai-ate and was now sporting his three tomoed Sharingan in his left socket.

'This fight just got a little bit tougher,' thought Haku with mild annoyance and a barely restrained sigh. She needed to get back to Zabuza, and these two were slowing her down considerably. She had underestimated them. It seemed that everyone did at first glance though. The Demon Brothers could atest to that... could, as in past tense. She would just need to pull out all the stops now, and that's exactly what she planned on doing.

Forming the Tiger hand seal, she gathered some chakra and created 11 water clones, each clone forming behind one of her ice mirrors that were on the ground level. With the clones made, they all proceeded to meld with each respective mirror just as Haku had done the first time, and to the two Genin in the middle, they would be none the wiser.

'Damn these senbon,' thought Naruto in irritation. 'They're not nearly as painful as being stabbed with a kunai, but they are easily 100 times more annoying.' Throwing the last of the senbon he retrieved from his back onto the ground, he got back into his fighting stance and holstered his trench knives, prompting his brother to pull out 2 of his own kunai and hold them in a reverse grip. "Hey, Sasuke, have you been able to see how he moves with your Sharingan?" whispered Naruto, eyes never leaving the forms of the hunter ninja occupying a mirror ahead of him.

Sasuke nodded his head slowly as he glanced over all 7 mirrors that were directly in his line of sight, not lingering on either one for too long. "Yeah, he's actually moving between each mirror at incredible speeds, too fast for the human eye to follow..." he explained softly, finally starting to understand the basics of the jutsu. "But with my Sharingan, I can see him moving from mirror to mirror. If you can get him to make a move again, I'm sure I'll be able to hit him with another jutsu."

Naruto nodded his head and grinned happily under his mask. Naruto had been able to see how he was moving as well, albeit a lot clearer than Sasuke due to the level of mastery his Sharingan held, but his brother seemed like he had this one, so Naruto was more than glad to let his brother handle the fake hunter nin.

'Distraction is a go then...' he thought with a playful smirk beneath his mask, pulling his hands up into the familiar cross handed seal through his trench knives, and calling out the name of his jutsu. **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)."** The area around Naruto and Sasuke was quickly enveloped in a light cloud of smoke, quickly disappearing to reveal 20 identical Naruto clones, all holding tightly onto their trench knives and staring back at the many Haku's with their mismatched eyes.

Having relayed the message to himself before creating the clones, Naruto along with all his clones all shot out in different directions, looking to run out the gaps in between each mirror that were so close yet, at the same time, so far out of reach. Sasuke kept his eyes peeled and focused on every movement that made its way into his field of view, muscles tensing in anticipation of firing off the jutsu to finish off this fight.

As the Naruto's slowly closed in on the gaps, the original idly wondered if perhaps they were actually going to make it. However, that was not to be. Having already made it too close to the edges for Haku's liking, she and her clones moved as one to dispatch of all the Naruto's. To a neutral observer looking in from the sidelines, all that would be seen was the simultaneous puffing of all 20 Naruto clones, distinctly appearing as if he'd dispelled his clones, while a lone fireball smashed into one of the ice mirrors, leaving it completely unscathed. But to the trained eyes of the 2 Genin in the centre of the fray, it was fairly easy to discern what had just happened.

They clearly were not 'finally beginning to understand her jutsu', and were left completely unawares when, instead of one hunter nin gunning after them, they suddenly had 12. Naruto was sent careening back into the middle of the dome on his back, stopping abruptly at Sasuke's feet. The force behind the sudden halt caused him to lose the grip on one of his trench knives, the metal weapon sliding along the ground towards the outer ring of the inside of the dome with a soft screeching of metal-on-concrete.

Naruto felt a hand place itself under his shoulder and help lift himself back to his feet, sending an appreciative nod to his brother. "That was certainly unexpected..." His words were supposed to come out as sarcastic, instead coming out through gritted teeth as he had to surpress an audible groan from the pain now racking his ribs. The hunter nin dealt him a solid blow to the abdominal, and he winced in slight pain again as he shuffled slowly on his feet.

Sasuke just nodded his head at his brother's words, having not expected to see more than 1 hunter nin moving around at the unimaginable speeds, let alone 12. He was somewhat annoyed when their opponent suddenly cut in to their conversation, seeming to be too over confident once again.

"I'm am sorry for what I am about to do, but I need to end this battle now. I cannot let Zabuza-sama down. I will protect the one most precious to me," she declared fiercly, running through 4 rapid hand seals that caused the 2 Genin to tense, Naruto more so out of shock of what she said than what she was doing.

'Those words...' Naruto rapidly thought back to the conversation he had with the girl in the forest several days ago, and his eyes widened ever so slightly. **_"Because I believe, that when a person fights to protect someone precious to them, that is when they become truly strong." _**'... it can't be, can it...'

Haku looked on at the 2 Shinobi with narrowed eyes. She was starting to near the limits of her chakra, so with one final jutsu, she would hopefully be able to finish the fight. It was ranked at the top as one of her most deadly jutsu, so there was no doubt in her mind whether this would finish them off. 'I apologise, Naruto-kun...'

Ending on the Snake hand seal, she held her hands out in front of her, the palms of her hands now resting on the mirror's surface from the inside. **"Hyoton: Yukihana no Jutsu (Ice Style: Snow Flower Jutsu)."**

**(Meanwhile, with Kakashi and Zabuza...)**

Kakashi waited several seconds as he slowly felt the reatreating forms of his Genin, sighing in satisfaction as they got well out of the way of his and Zabuza's fight. This next confrontation of their's was not going to be for the faint of heart; this being the exact reason he had subtly told his Genin to steer clear of him. With Sakura and Tazuna on the North end of the bridge and Naruto and Sasuke on the South, it gave him and Zabuza - more Kakashi though - free reign to really go all out in this next bout without the need to worry about his students.

"So Kakashi, are you ready to be put down... I won't lose again like last time," Zabuza said confidently, almost sounding amused.

It was quite unnerving to Kakashi, although he'd be damned if he let even a little bit of his uneasiness show through his facade. He was an elite Jounin with an 65 million ryo bounty on his head; he had appearances to keep up. "And what makes you so sure about that Zabuza," asked Kakashi cooly, keeping his dissimilar eyes fixed on Zabuza's form. He noted, with some satisfaction, that Zabuza seemed to be putting in a great deal of effort to keep from looking in his eyes. He smirked. "I can already see what the outcome of this battle is going to be."

Zabuza remained unmoving for several seconds before he let out a low chuckle, clutching a little tighter on the handle of his Executioner's Blade as he held it firmly on his shoulders. "Don't toy with me Kakashi, I know all about that eye of yours. That Sharingan can no more see the future, than a human being can live without breathing."

Kakashi blinked a couple times before smirking right back and narrowing his eyes playfully. "I'll agree that that was a rather nice sentiment; our ideals are, however, vastly different." He reapplied his serious gaze from before and turned on the killing intent. "Believe what you will, but I don't need this **_eye_** of mine to know that you will die here today, and by my hand no less."

Zabuza didn't even so much as flinch under the wave of killing intent that Kakashi was releasing into the immediate atmosphere. To any lesser person, it would be a pretty uncomfortable and stifling experience to be standing anywhere nearby the two Jounin. Both Jounin, however, had seen more than their fair share of blood and gore, and could both be considered **_Demons_** in their own rights.

Zabuza narrowed his eyes and frowned hatefully at Kakashi's form, lifting his left hand up into the tell-tale Ram sign, signifying Zabuza's signature jutsu. "We shall see... **Ninpou: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu)**... or rather, you won't," he added cryptically with an amused chuckle, before his body was swallowed by the mist.

If it was at all possible, the mist all around the Copy Ninja began to thicken to an unimaginable level, eventually cutting off all links to the outside world, as if he was in the middle of nowhere. The silence was absolutely deafening, and had he not been a trained veteran, he might have mistaken the silence for the loss of his hearing and perhaps his sanity. This mist was easily thicker and denser than the last time the 2 had fought, and it seemed that Zabuza wasn't taking his chances with Kakashi's Sharingan again.

'Just my luck,' Kakashi thought with a hint of sarcasm, before he schooled his senses outwards and pulled out a kunai defnsively. 'Okay Zabuza, let's see what you-...' He was suddenly cut off from his thoughts as he ducked his body, narrowly missing the sharpened edge of the Executioner's Blade as it came slicing through mist-clouded air. It passed right above his head and nicked off a couple strands of his silver hair with an almost imperceptible whistle, the sheer power behind the strike more than enough to easily behead the Konoha Jounin had it connected with its intended target. He didn't have time to rest though as the massive blade came down vertically at a crushing speed, prompting Kakashi to roll his body to the left to avoid being instantly bisected by the attack; not something that was particularly high up on Kakashi's 'things-to-do' list. The blade made contact with the bridge on the spot where Kakashi was standing not even a second before, sending sparks flying as the steel of the blade met the solid concrete of the bridge.

Another slash from the Executioner's Blade came whizzing in from Kakashi's left while he was still rolling, and with practised dexterity and skills well beyond that of the average ninja, he flipped himself up and over the blade with a quick palm thrust to the ground below, immediately flashing through hand seals at the blinding speed he was so well known for.

'It's almost as if he's in three places at once! That can only mean... **Mizu Bunshins (Water Clones)!**' he thought frantically as he finished the last hand seal and ended on the Tiger. His body continued to fly back from the flip, and he twisted himself around in mid-air to face back in the direction he came from before bringing his hands up to his mouth. **"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu (Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!"**

The flaming balls of chakra hurtled through the cool, misty air, leaving a trench of clear air in their wake as they collided with Zabuza's Water Clones. There was a high pitched hissing sound ringing out from all around the immediate area, before the Zabuza's plopped back to the ground in a puddle of water, relaying to Kakashi what he had been suspecting earlier. 'So, he's using water clones to try and throw me off further is he? I'll admit that he's definitely making me work for this one,' he thought with a derisive chuckle. 'Well, two can play at that game...'

At that moment, the mist immediately flooded back in, filling the previously made trenches of clear air back up with the vision impairing phenomenon, the eery silence once again taking its place to tie in with the ever rising hurdles of the battle. Kakashi's eyes momentarily drifted to the pouch on the back of his pants before training them to look back all around him. What he'd give to get a break so he could have some time to continue reading his Icha Icha Paradise.

His ears picked up on the faintest of snaps coming from behind him, but his eyes widened when the blade came passing through his head at eye level, before he smirked victoriously as his body began to waver and fade into nothingness.

'A **Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)**? Does he really think that's going to stop me?' he thought sarcastically with an amused smirk. He kneaded a decent amount of chakra and formed the Ram seal once again, except this time he directed his attention to the puddles of water littering the floor, as well as the mist all around him. **'Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Clone Jutsu).'** Eight clones rose from the water on the ground and in the air, forming more nigh-indistinguishable copies of himself around him. "You can't hide from me forever Kakashi... unlike you, I don't need my eyes to navigate this mist," he said amusedly, projecting his voice through the air all around him.

With a wave of his hand, all the clones moved further into the thick chakra-infused mist, disappearing into the white fog. His clones set out to immediately put an end to Kakashi and his annoying little tricks, but that was not to be; not if Kakashi had anything to say about it.

Kakashi, at this point in time, was on the East edge of the bridge with his back facing the sea. He formed the hand seal and began kneading as much chakra as he could spare for this next jutsu. It was going to take a lot out of him, but he couldn't hold back against Zabuza this time. He needed to open the flood gates, so to speak, no pun intended, although he couldn't help letting out a small chuckle as it managed to tie in with the jutsu he was about to use. Nevertheless, that's just what he intended to do. He still had his Bunshins scouring the bridge that was covered in the mist, so he was pretty sure he wouldn't be interrupted. He would need to make this jutsu big enough so that it got Zabuza for sure. With one last sign, he opened his eyes and held the Snake seal. **"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha (Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave)!"**

With a great deal of effort and concentration, Kakashi began manipulating an ungodly amount of sea water from below him, the mass of liquid slowly ascending behind him in what looked like the formation of a massive wave. A few beads of sweat began rolling off of his forehead and down into his mask below, the saline liquid dampening the material slightly. The effort needed to perform this jutsu was truly immense, and he couldn't help but commend the poor sucker he'd copied this from. It didn't look this difficult for the person he copied it from though, if he remembered correctly; which he usually did.

With a loud grunt, he redirected the mass of water he had collected and sent it all barreling overhead down at the bridge, falling down to one knee as he did so. The results of the jutsu were instantaneous, immediately devestating and consuming everything in its path, including the mist that covered the bridge before. The force behind the body of water that was now traveling from one railing of the bridge to the other was simply astonishing, picking up and throwing building equipment along with the corresponding building materials crashing down into the ocean below as if it was nothing; as well as a certain unsuspecting Demon of the Mist.

Although down on one knee and panting heavily from the over exertion, Kakashi had to pat himself on the back for that jutsu, which he did... literally. A Shadow Clone had appeared from the North end of the bridge where Sakura was located with Tazuna and helped the original back onto his feet. "Thanks... I really needed... a hand," he breathed out in between pants, allowing his Shadow Clone to pick him up from his left arm while he wiped the sweat from his brow with his right.

His clone gave him the pat on the back he wanted and held out its hand that was carrying the Food Pill it had been given by the original earlier. "You're going to need this more than I will, and with your current exhaustion, I suggest you take it now, even if you're not really out of chakra. This is one fight you don't-..."

The clone was cut off by a hand grabbing the Food Pill from its hand and then placing another hand over its mouth to stop it from speaking. "As much as I appreciate the advice, you are me, so I know what I have to do." The clone let loose a light snicker and shrugged it off. The clone walked backwards and stuck to the under side of the bridge, while the remaining Kakashi swallowed the Food Pill and slowly began moving towards the other end of the bridge where Zabuza had been thrown off. "Let's go see if our opponent still has some fight left in him," he thought out loud to himself as he stood on top of the railing on the West side of the bridge, looking down onto the ocean's surface to see a soaking Zabuza steadily pulling himself out of the water; albeit with some difficulty after taking the damage from Kakashi's last jutsu.

Kakashi silently watched with onyx and Sharingan eye alike, as Zabuza shakily pushed himself onto his knees and coughed a couple of times to rid himself of the water invading his lungs. It wasn't long before Zabuza's gaze turned skyward and his eyes met with Kakashi's, unbridled hatred present in his eyes. Kakashi would've laughed at Zabuza's expense if the situation didn't call for a certain amount of seriousness.

As it was, Kakashi had pushed Zabuza pretty far, and if Zabuza was completely honest with himself and was able to swallow his pride for a mere fraction of a second, he would be able to admit that he was infact feeling the effetcs of the battle so far. But, Zabuza had yet to be pushed this far since his departure from Kirigakure no Sato **(Village Hidden in the Mist)**, so his level of confidence had taken a turn for the arrogant.

So, it was with a laboured breath that he pushed himself back onto his shaky legs, refusing to go down after taking a hit from some good-for-nothing Copycat. He had too much riding on the completion of this mission, and he wasn't about to give up when he was only a battle away from receiving the pay he needed to fund his coup on the Yondaime Mizukage. Not when he was an assassination away from getting one step closer to achieving his dream.

Kakashi slowly lowered himself into a crouch, giving the Food Pill as much extra time as he could to do what it was developed to do, before he leapt off the side of the bridge and dropped to the ocean's surface below. He revelled in the cool air that was softly impacting his face, cooling off his mask as the air passed through the lightly sweat-covered material. It was a relaxing feeling, and he had to stop himself from closing his eyes on the way down and almost forgetting to adjust himself to land, lest he crash straight into the body of water that was located down below.

With ease and grace that spoke of his stature as a veteran shinobi, he landed on the ocean's surface a good 20 metres away from Zabuza and slowly got to his feet, fixing his clothes and flak jacket that was misplaced by the rush of air caused by his free fall. He focused his eyes back on Zabuza and they took on an almost amused glint. "What say you we finish this little battle Zabuza? You seem to be nearing your limit, and I'd hate to drag this out; especially when my cute little Genin are still busy with your subordinate."

If Kakashi was honest with himself, he was more than a little worried for his two male Genin that he sent off to take on the fake hunter ninja. It wasn't that he didn't have faith in his students' abilities; no, far from it; he just felt an odd sense of foreboding looming in the air when he had made the decision to send them after Zabuza's cohort, although, at the time, he just chalked it up to being a little protective of his students.

He'd be lying if he said he hadn't started to become quite fond of his Genin students. They all had their quirks and their odd personality traits, but they had begun to fill a void that had occupied Kakashi's life for quite a long time - a void he didn't think he'd ever be able to fill again. Maybe, just maybe, he could allow himself to care, **_truly_** care for someone again; and maybe, just maybe,**_ this_** time, he could protect them. He would sure as hell do anything within in his power to protect anyone of his three Genin, that much was blatantly certain.

"You need not worry about them, Kakashi... Haku should be just about done with wiping the floor of those brats of yours," Zabuza sneered while clutching at his ribs with his left hand. 'Although Haku should have been finished by now. What could be taking her so long,' he thought exasperatedly. He hated to admit it, but he was damn sore, and he possibly had more than a few broken ribs after taking the full brunt of Kakashi's jutsu, as well as the fall that accompanied it.

'Naruto and Sasuke are strong for Genin, and together, they'll be more than enough to handle that hunter ninja. I don't need to worry about them, I must give them the benefit of the doubt... they can do this.' With those passing thoughts fresh in his mind, he narrowed his eyes dangerously at Zabuza while reaching into his thigh pouch and pulling out a kunai. "Don't go shooting your mouth off just yet Zabuza... you'd be surprised by how much my Genin have improved since our last meeting..." he mused loudly, switching his kunai into a reverse grip. "... wholly thanks to you, by the way, so thanks for that... I guess."

Zabuza clenched his right hand tightly around his Kubikiribocho and swung it over his shoulder once again, glaring hatefully at the silver haired Copycat. "Enough talk Kakashi! I'm gonna finish this now..." He, just as before, raised his free hand up into the air in the Ram seal, and a thick, chakra infused mist sprang up all around them as Zabuza vanished within. 'Bit of a one-trick pony, wouldn't you say?' Kakashi thought sarcastically. This mist however was much denser, possibly due to the fact that they were standing on the ocean, Kakashi hypothesised. Kakashi paid no mind to it though; he had fought in this mist **_now_** more times than he could count, so how would one more time make a difference?

Apparently looking to eagerly answer his question, Zabuza materialised from within the mist and took a massive swing at the unmoving form of Kakashi, swinging in at his torso from behind him with as much force as he could muster. When Kakashi was finally able to place the sound, he whipped his head around and found the massive blade slicing in towards him. His Sharingan could see what was coming his way with no difficulty whatsoever, and he could see exactly where he would need to be, and how exactly he would need to move in order to dodge the weapon making its way towards him in order to not get so much as a scratch. However, the speed that his body would need to travel at to completely dodge the blade was, at this point in time, outside of his reach.

So, opting for the best valued alternative to death, he hastily jumped back with as much force and speed as he could muster in these life-threatening seconds, and braced himself for what was about to come. Pain. A burning sensation unlike any other that came with the act of getting sliced across your body with a blade. He knew the feeling all too well, but that didn't make the pain any easier to bare.

He skidded to a stop on slightly shaky feet, and he let out a few heavy pants as he ran his hand across his chest. He was met with that eerily warm feeling of fresh blood on your skin, and he had to hold back a grimace as his new wound stung with a seering pain. His flak jacket had taken the brunt of the strike, but he still had a fairly deep gash across his entire torso, and with the amount of blood he would most likely lose, he needed to end this as soon as possible.

"What's the matter Kakashi," rang out Zabuza's condescending voice from nowhere in particular. He could honest to Kami feel Zabuza's smirk, and then came the chuckling. That dark and sadistic chuckling that every killer seemed to know so well. "You're looking a little sluggish. What happened to all that confidence you seemed to be exuding a few seconds ago? I hope this isn't the end already?" he asked sarcastically and chuckled again, his disembodied voice ringing true throughout the area they were occupying beneath the bridge.

Was that what his problem was? Did he begin to get too overconfident in his abilities? Was his attitude becoming slightly too cock-sure for his liking? Kakashi shook his head quickly and immediately regretted it, the loss of blood already causing his head to swim slightly. He was running out of time. He needed to get back to the bridge to assist his Genin incase they needed him. He couldn't afford to wait around any longer while losing more blood than his body could readily produce.

And then it clicked... Blood! His blood. He hastily withdrew a small scroll from a pouch in his flak jacket, praying to Kami that it didn't get caught in that last attack of Zabuza's. He mentally sighed in relief when he found the scroll to be perfectly intact, and without any further stalling, he unfurled the scroll and smeared his blood across it using the hand that felt his wound earlier. He quickly rolled the scroll back and placed it between his hands, going through hand seals as fast as he could, finishing on the Dog seal and slamming his scroll-clutching hand onto the surface of the ocean. **"Kuchiyose: Suiton: Tsuiga no Jutsu (Summoning: Water Style: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu)!"**

With a small puff of smoke, the seals and writing that was inscribed on the scroll began fanning out through the surface of the water, moving around at a fast pace in search of its target. The water below began moving around, but the movement blended in perfectly with the rhythmic movement of the ocean's water, so Zabuza was none the wiser to the fate that was about to befall him. As if on cue...

Zabuza's pained scream echoed through the thick fogged area, before he noticed, with a small smile, that the mist slowly began to lighten up. It didn't take long for the area on the ocean's surface to become relatively visible again, and Zabuza could now be seen standing not too far off from Kakashi. Although, he now had 8 of Kakashi's ninken hanging off from certain spots on Zabuza's body. "Get these muts off me Kakashi!" Zabuza snarled, holding back more pained screams as the ninken bit down slightly harder from being called 'muts'.

Pakkun was hanging off Zabuza's right arm, while Ūhei was gripping Zabuza's left arm and bringing him closer to the ground; Bull was behind Zabuza and holding him down with his paws and teeth deeply sunk into his shoulder; Guruko was keeping a hold on Zabuza's Kubikiribocho by biting down on it through the whole located near the front of the blade; Akina and Urushi were gripping down firmly on Zabuza's left leg, while Biscuit and Shiba were taking a hold of Zabuza's right.

It was a fairly amusing sight for Kakashi, and he simply couldn't help himself letting out a soft snigger. "Yo Pakkun, how's it hanging?" he asked his personal summon non-chalantly, taking perfect note of the fact that Pakkun was indeed, hanging.

Pakkun simply rolled his eyes at his summoner's words, having become fairly accustomed to the sense of humour Kakashi sported. "I'm doing just fine, just hurry up and restrain him," he muffled through his vice-like grip on Zabuza's forearm. "We can't keep him up on the water forever you know. He's pretty heavy, even for Bull."

Kakashi seemed to understand and nodded his head, at which point a clone of Kakashi, the clone from before, appeared behind Zabuza and began going through hand seals once again before holding out his hand at Zabuza. **"Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu)."**

Chakra infused water began to form around the body of Zabuza, and it slowly snaked its way up his legs towards the top of his neck, one by one allowing the ninken to relinquish their holds on their respective Zabuza-appendages and dispelling themselves. Once his entire body was covered and the water was enough to fully restrain him, Bull moved away from Zabuza and the water fully enveloped the entirety of Zabuza's body, whom was now located in a chakra-blue sphere of water. "Thanks for the help Bull, Pakkun. You guys can dispel yourselves now. I'll handle this from here." With a dismissive wave of their paws, they both dispelled themselves and left Kakashi and Zabuza alone once again.

Zabuza growled lowly, but coupled with the fact that he was in the water prison, it came out as more of a gurgle than anything, prompting Kakashi to smirk and Zabuza to deepen his scowl. "Thwarted in the end by my own move." Zabuza shook his head and let out a small chuckle. "It's almost as if you're mocking me, using my own jutsu against me with that eye of yours. You are a truly formidable opponent, Kakashi Hatake," he said in a water distorted voice with a sad smile and a high level of respect evident in his tone.

Kakashi noted his sudden change in demeanor with a raised eyebrow and a tilt of the head. "What's the matter Zabuza? Finally relenting and accepting your fate?" In truth, he had done the exact same thing the last time he had fallen hostage to this specific jutsu, so perhaps he shouldn't be too surprised. A side effect of the jutsu maybe? He didn't know, he had only just copied it from Zabuza, so he wasn't too familiar with it just yet.

Zabuza scoffed and sent his hateful eyes Kakashi's way. "Of course not Hatake. This isn't over yet! Not by a long shot." In his thoughts was a different story though. He was expecting his tool to swoop in any moment and save him, but the absence of said tool was beginning to worry him. 'Where the hell are you Haku?!'

Kakashi slowly shook his head, but once again stopped the action almost immediately, his vision beginning to swim due to the loss of blood. He needed to do something about that wound of his, and he didn't have anything medical related to close his wound up. But if he didn't close it soon, he was going to die from blood loss. He slowly got a hold back on his senses, and looked towards Zabuza as he was held up in the water prison. "Oh, but I'm afraid it is Zabuza. And because you think so **_highly_** of my eye's ability to copy ninjutsu, I think I'll treat you to a sight that not many get the opportunity to see. I'll finish you off with my own, original jutsu."

Before Kakashi began his jutsu, he reached into his back pouch and pulled out another pill, but this one was significantly smaller than the food pill he had eaten earlier. Truth be told, Kakashi didn't fully expect to use these pills on a C-rank mission, but this wasn't really a C-rank anymore, was it? Nevertheless, he quickly ingested the pill, and the effects were immediate.

The Plasma Pill he'd just eaten was doing its job of increasing the blood production in his body, evidenced by the fact that his wound's bleeding had re-ignited with renewed vigor. Now he had the blood he'd lost back, but if he didn't reclose this wound of his, he would just lose all of the newly created blood like before. He slowly went through three hand seals, Ox, Rabbit, then Monkey, before gripping his right forearm with his left hand. **"Raikiri (Lightning Blade)!"**

White sparks of electricity began igniting around his outstretched hand before they suddenly turned blue, and the electricity began swirling around him, concerntrated from the point on his right palm where the high density of electricity was turning a white colour.

Zabuza's eyes widened exponentially at the sight of the jutsu, and he stared slightly slack jawed at the chakra that was radiating off of and around Kakashi's body. 'W-what is that jutsu... there's so much chakra, it's actually becoming visible!' he thought frantically, his eyes watching as the bolts of electricity arced and crackled loudly around Kakashi's form. "So this is the true power of the Copy Ninja..."

But before Kakashi decided to advance on Zabuza, there was still the matter of his grievous wound that needed to be tended to. He quickly grabbed another small, empty scroll from his flak jacket and placed it in his mouth along with the portion of his mask covering his mouth, biting down lightly. Once that was in place, with extremely precise chakra control that was used to form and develop the **Raikiri (Lightning Blade)**, Kakashi slowly and carefully lifted the jutsu up to his wound and dragged it along the deep and long piercing cut caused by Zabuza's blade, audibly shouting through the scroll in his mouth from the seering pain. The desired outcome was taking effect though, the jutsu cauterising the wound and closing it up from the immense heat caused by the jutsu. There was going to be a massive scar there when this was over, but that was much more preferable than dying at the moment.

He was using all his will power to not fall down unconscious and electrocute himself to death, something he was finding increasingly difficult to do. But he had to hold on. What Kakashi was doing now was extremely stupid, and it was a half-baked plan that he made up on the spot of a high-tension's battle, but he needed to do it. He was just silently thankful for his rubber-soled ninja sandals, because if his electrified skin had to have come in contact with the water... He let his thoughts hang there and hastily pulled his hand away from his now-closed up wound as he let the jutsu drop, letting out a massive breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and dropping the scroll from his mouth into the ocean below.

He stood there wide-eyed for a few seconds, continuously panting with exhaustion as the remnants of electric currents flowed through his body, desperately seeking to discharge themselves. "In hind sight... that probably wasn't... a very smart idea..." But it did get the job done of closing his wound, so he wasn't too bummed.

'He used the heat from his jutsu to cauterise the wound I gave him earlier,' mused Zabuza as he watched Kakashi slowly start to regain some form of composure. 'An ingenious plan; not very clever to use a lightning based jutsu, but clever nonetheless.'

Kakashi shook his head to free himself of the cobwebs that were in there, and was happy to note that his vision remained intact this time. He was unhappy to note though, that certain parts of his body were still twitching and spasming involuntarily. 'But, I suppose that's what comes with prodding yourself with who knows how many volts of electricity,' he thought amusedly, rubbing his jaw to relieve some of the lingering pain.

With his motor functions more or less back to normal, he trained his gaze back on Zabuza and once again held his right hand out, gripping his forearm with his left hand. The electricity sparked on and off around his hands a couple times, before the jutsu cackled to life and arced all around Kakashi's arm. "Sorry about that, but now that I'm more or less stable, let's finish this. What do you say?" he asked sarcastically, slowly making his way to Zabuza's imprisoned form.

Zabuza slowly shook his head and couldn't help the small smirk that graced his lips beneath the cloth surrounding his mouth. "It seems that I never really stood a chance against Sharingan no Kakashi right from the get-go. You live up to your status as an A-rank shinobi, Kakashi Hatake, and if I must die now, I am content with it being by your hands." His voice was firm and strong, but one could detect the slightest hint of regret in his voice, something that Kakashi did pick up on.

Kakashi sighed from his position as he continued to walk up to Zabuza, now only five steps away. "You're too dangerous Zabuza..." Kakashi began, raising his voice slightly to talk over the sound of his crackling jutsu. "... far too dangerous to be left to your own devices. The man you were tasked with killing, the bridge builder, Tazuna-san; he is this country's last dredge of hope, and we cannot allow you to kill him... not when he's so close to freeing this country from its struggle."

Seeing the look in Zabuza's unwavering gaze, he sighed one more time before stopping in front of the water prison. "If it's any consolation, you fought admirably, Zabuza, and you fought for a cause you saw fit to fight for. It doesn't make you a Demon - it merely makes you a shinobi." He raised his hand above his head and took one last look at Zabuza. "It was an honour to face you in battle, Zabuza..." he finished, nodding his head at Zabuza ever so slightly.

"As were you," Zabuza answered softly, closing his eyes and preparing for the end. This would be the end of his dream, of his ambition. It's a shame he never got to put an end to the bloodline war once and for all. But such was the life of the ninja. All ninja had dreams; but few rarely ever saw their dreams come to fruition. 'I'm sorry, Haku...'

**"Raikiri (Lightning Blade)!"**

**(Back with Naruto and Sasuke vs Haku...)**

**"Hyoton: Yukihana no Jutsu (Ice Style: Snow Flower Jutsu)." **At first, nothing seemed to be happening and Naruto had to wonder if perhaps the hunter nin, now very much thought to be Haku, was finally slipping up and nearing her limit. But after waiting another second, the temperature seemed to drop quite considerably, to the point that their breaths were now condensing as the air left their mouths.

And then, ever so slowly and lightly, small flakes of snow began forming at the top of the dome and began descending to the ground below. The sight was almost surreal, the soft and gentle-looking snow flakes, swaying softly from side to side in the ocean breeze like a feather as it fell from the top-most ice mirror. They would have called it beautiful, until the first snow flake made contact with the ground... and promptly shot up into a small deadly flower made of ice, spears of ice emerging from the flower as it was formed. It was reminiscent of a drop of water hitting a surface of water, and then freezing, but on a much larger scale.

It wasn't an overly big flower, give or take the size of one of their heads. Looking skyward, the amount of snow flakes only seemed to be increasing, and they paled when they thought ahead to what could possibly be a slow and painful death. Naruto watched as a snow flake came into contact with the trench knife he'd lost earlier, completely covering it in ice. A passing shot from a senbon struck the ice covered knife directly, shattering the flower as well as the knife inside, one of his increasingly favourite weapons now simply shattered metal in the wind. But as the number of snowflakes gradually began to increase, the danger of the jutsu finally began to set in. Each time a snow flake made contact with a pre-existing snow flower, it would double in size and expand outward, and the ground was slowly becoming covered in the sharp spears of ice.

Coupled with the fact that the hunter ninja was still throwing senbon at them, it was truly looking grim for the two Genin, and they were slowly becoming tired as well. Constantly having to dodge the limitless supply of senbon the hunter ninja seemed to have was extremely taxing; not to mention they were starting to feel a little sluggish from the senbon that did manage to score a hit on their bodies, apparently making contact with many pressure points.

They did the only thing that seemed viable at this point in time. Now that they were completely surrounded, it was a sort of last ditch effort. **"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!"** They both intoned in unison, spewing the flames from their mouths in the form of a flame thrower rather than a once off fireball like before.

The jutsu's were directed in all directions inside the dome of ice that was slowly becoming filled with more ice flowers from Haku's jutsu. The flames seemed to be doing their jobs of melting the ice flowers that were currently littered all around the floor, as well as the falling snow flakes that managed to get caught in the flames, but the snow flakes continued their relentless fall shortly after, giving them no reprieve from having to expend chakra for such a long jutsu.

Naruto and Sasuke were both panting heavily, eyes half lidded as they slouched their grievously cut and slashed bodies, the cuts from the ice flowers and the exhaustion of the battle beginning to take its toll. "I don't know... how much longer I... can keep this up... Sasuke," breathed Naruto, lowering himself onto one of his knees.

Sasuke glanced to his left at Naruto, watching as he lowered himself onto his knees out of exhaustion. He was about to open his mouth to retort and express his concerns as well, when something in the corner of his peripherals caught his eye. Looking to the right ever so slightly, he noticed a barrage of senbon that were speeding towards Naruto, right in his brother's blind spot, and the snow had momentarily stopped to allow the safe passage of the weapons through the air.

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock and horror, and time seemed to slow down as his legs turned him left and began taking him towards Naruto with as much speed as the could muster. The senbon were fast approaching, and he wasn't going to make it in time traveling at this speed. He quickly channeled as much chakra into his legs as he could, reveling in the speed he gained for but a split second before focusing back on his brother and pushing his legs to their absolute limits. "Naruto!"

_*SQUELCH*_

Naruto flew from his spot and landed with a hard fall on an open patch of ground, letting out an audible groan as he raised himself off the floor. He heard the sound of a drop of water, and then again, and again. Looking to the right, he stared on in horror at the sight that befell his eyes. It was Sasuke. Except, he was riddled with senbon, looking akin to a human pin cushion. The thought of something like that would've greatly amused him had his brother not just been stabbed and pierced with what looked to be at least 30 senbon needles. "W-why Sasuke? You could've escaped while he was busy with me..."

"I don't know... my body just moved," he breathed out through grit teeth, now struggling to keep his eyes open and to stay conscious. He could feel the senbon all over his body, or, to be more precise, he couldn't feel them. His entire body was going numb, and his vision was slowly darkening. "I-Im sorry, N-Naruto..."

Sasuke's body slowly began to fall, and in the next second, Naruto had shunshined over to his body and cradled him close before he could fall and plunge the senbon all over his body further into his body. He pulled out all the senbon from his back and front and then held him up by his back with his right hand, while cradling his head with his left. "N-no Sasuke, keep your eyes open! Stay awake Sasuke! You're stronger than this! I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough!" Naruto yelled, his hands balling into fists as he held firmly onto Sasuke's body. "I wasn't strong enough..." he breathed softly, tears stinging the back of his eyes as he stared into Sasuke's slowly fading Sharingan.

"Naruto, stop blaming yourself... and listen to me... you must restore the name of the Uchiha Clan... and avenge our family..." he choked out, desperately trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to escape. Seeing Naruto about to break down was making it pretty difficult, but if he was going down, he wanted to go down with some form of dignity, so he held back another sob, and cut Naruto off before he could speak again. "You may not have been my brother by blood... but you were my brother nonetheless... and my best friend... thank you for everything... Naruto..." His eyes reverted back to their onyx colour, and his eye lids slowly started to droop, losing the life that they once held.

"No Sasuke! You can't! Don't leave me! You can't give up, not yet!" But his cries were falling on gradually deafening ears. Sasuke eyes were slowly closing, and his hearing was all but gone. All he could see now was Naruto's mouth moving behind his mask, tears flowing freely down his face. Before Sasuke's eyes could fully close he let himself have one final smile as he stared up at his brother in all but blood, before one lone tear left his eye, and ran down the side of his face.

Naruto felt his brother's body go limp, and a hand immediately shot out to check for a pulse, for anything to make sure that Sasuke wasn't infact dead. But to no avail. There was nothing. Not even the tiniest of pulses that he really hoped would still be there. He gripped onto Sasuke a little tighter, bringing him up close to his body for one final hug as he clenched his eyes shut and fought back the tears once again.

Why? Why did he have to die? Why did he have to be so weak, that he couldn't even protect himself? If he had just been stronger, Sasuke would have never needed to push him out the way and take the attack instead. Naruto's mind was slowly becoming clouded with guilt and regret, and his emotions were running wild. It was his fault that Sasuke died. This was all **_his_** fault!

He gently laid Sasuke's body back on the ground, running a hand over his eyes to shut his eye lids properly. He looked down at Sasuke's face, his peaceful looking face that was set in a small, happy smile. A smile that would look alien to so many, but not Naruto. He had seen that smile many a time, and this was the Sasuke that he knew as his brother. The Sasuke that didn't put up any mask to hide his emotions. This was his brother. His best friend. And he would avenge him.

Naruto balled his fists and slowly rose to his feet hanging his head low as he turned around to face the lone hunter ninja standing in one of his mirrors. His eyes were covered by his bangs, but his guilt and angst was slowly being replaced by unbridled hatred and white-hot rage, all being directed at one person. The person responsible for this in the first place. He slowly raised his head, and his eyes met the hunter ninja's once more. "I'll kill you for what you've done," he said lowly. His voice was soft and slightly strained, but the words easily carried across the inside of the dome, and it sent a slight shiver down her spine.

She met Naruto's eyes through the slits in her mask, and immediately averted her gaze with a small gasp. Naruto's eyes were... different, to say the least. Besides the fact that all the previous warmth she'd seen in his eyes were now gone, his Sharingan was different. It no longer held the three tomoe it had before. Now, it was a four pointed pinwheel that looked almost like a shuriken, but not quite, and there was a thin line of blood that was leaking out the corner of his eye. His right eye had also changed slightly, the iris remaining its natural bright blue colour, however his pupil was now slitted, giving him a more feral appearance. His body was also encompassed by an orange aura, and the killing intent that he was giving off was bordering on insane. It was nothing like she'd ever felt with Zabuza before, and she was hard pressed to breathe normally.

Her breathing had become more laboured, and tiny black splotches were beginning to show up in her line of sight. She struggled to keep herself from gasping for breath and buckling over as she remained in the terrible presence he was giving off. But with her objective still very much her top priority, she had to endure. For Zabuza's sake.

Naruto was reveling in the power that he could feel coursing through his veins. He flexed his fists several times and gave a few practice punches and kicks on his spot in the centre of the dome, testing out this new found strength and speed. 'I'm not sure what's going on...' he thought curiously, staring at the palms of his hands. '... but I feel better than ever.' He turned his gaze back to the hunter ninja and his face morphed into a disgusted scowl. "Let's finish this."

Without wasting any more time, he shot off straight at the mirror that held the only hunter ninja left, and immediately drew his fist back to strike out at the slab of ice. Just before he got within striking distance however, he noticed, with relative ease, that he could see perfectly as the hunter ninja fled from the confines of his ice mirror to another mirror located a little further behind Naruto. His vision seemed immensely clearer than anytime he'd used his Sharingan before, and that was saying something since his vision was incredibly clear before. Unable to stop himself though, he ploughed straight into the crystalised ice mirror and cracked it down the middle upon impact, the mirror falling to the ground and shattering into hundreds of thousands of ice shards.

Haku stared back in silent bewilderment. No one, not even Zabuza, had been able to so much as crack one of her ice mirrors before, let alone split it straight down the middle... and only with a punch no less! 'His speed and strength have greatly increased ever since that orange haze covered his body! I can't let him hit me... or I'll be finished...' Haku reached into her sleeves for another salvo of senbon, but upon looking up again and getting ready to take aim, she found herself staring into a pair of mismatched eyes that were inches away from her face.

Oddly enough, despite the fact that they were in a fight, to the death no less, she suddenly felt herself getting increasingly sleepy, and she felt her head and eye lids sagging a little. Before she completely nodded off though, she suddenly remembered that she had stared right into his eyes, and he had probably used a genjutsu on her. She brought her right hand up as fast as she could in her sleepy state, and promptly made the Ram seal, stopping her flow of chakra before flooding them open again.

The sleep left her as quickly as it had first come, and the world around her didn't seem different at all... except for Naruto materialising right in front of her, his arm already drawn back and in the process of swinging! Without any time to spare, she leapt out of the mirror and headed for another one, but Naruto had anticipated that she would flee just as he made it within reaching distance of one of her mirrors, just as before.

So as soon as the last part of her body left the ice mirror, he firmly grabbed her by the ankle, eliciting a small gasp from the hunter ninja as he began dropping to the ground with her ankle still firmly in his grasp. She tried reaching for her senbon, but he was dragging her down too fast for her to be able to get a decent grip on one - one would be all she'd need to put him down from this distance. She eventually relented and resigned herself to her fate. His grip on her was way too strong, there was no way she was getting free from it unless he wanted her to.

Her thoughts were cut short though as she felt her body jerking forwards again, being dragged through the air by her ankle. Before she knew what he was doing though, her mask suddenly met concrete as she was flung body first into the bridge below her. Her body screamed in pain from the blunt force of Naruto's attack, and she opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. With an immense amount of effort, she steadily turned her head and looked to where she thought he'd be, but he wasn't.

Before she could ponder any longer on that though, she was suddenly lifted off the ground from her leg and unceremoniously tossed across the bridge, landing quite a distance away on her back. She stared into the overcast sky above her, and momentarily forgot about all the pain that was racking her body. It almost looked as if the skies were preparing to open up and allow the rain to come crashing down, alluding them to the fact that it had predicted the outcome of today's event.

Naruto started descending down towards the hunter ninja, gravity slowly pulling him back down to earth faster and faster. He was angry, and he wanted to, no **_needed_**, to vent. He wasn't seeing red; far from it, actually. He was completely under control of his emotions, and although he couldn't keep his anger down, he was still thinking with a somewhat clear mind. A side effect of the Sharingan he was currently wileding, although it would be a long time before he realised that. Focusing back on his target, he narrowed his eyes at the hunter ninja's unmoving form and readied himself to let loose the haymaker he was charging up.

She continued to stare up at the sky for the longest time, forgetting that she was in the middle of a battle, and it felt like a multitude of time had passed by when she finally caught sight of Naruto again. He was ascending into the air above her, his mismatched eyes piercing her chocolate brown's behind her mask. His fist was drawn back, and she could almost literally feel the power he was putting behind the finishing blow. This was it... this was going to be her end. 'I'm sorry... Zabuza-sama...'

The crack in her mask that had been caused by the previous attack began to magnify, and suddenly, her mask began to slowly fall away from her face, crumbling to pieces onto the bridge below her and revealing her beautiful face for him to finally see again. Her eyes were on the verge of tears from the pain, but she bit back her sobs and closed her eyes, deciding to rather not watch as she was pummeled into the ground. She waited for the punch to come, for her time to be put to an end, but it never came. All she felt was... 'Is it raining?'

She slowly opened her eyes, and was met with the sight of Naruto standing over her with his fist inches away from her face, his arm shaking slightly from the will power it was taking to not follow through with his attack. She was hit with another droplet of water, and diverted her eyes to behind the fist that was in her face, finding Naruto's eyes pouring out tears as he looked at her with an expression mixed between sadness, betrayal and confusion.

"Why do you hesitate, Naruto-kun?" Haku breathed out softly, her gaze traveling to his lone azure orb that had reverted back to its normal appearance, losing the slitted pupil as well as the orange aura. "I thought you were going to avenge your friend?" she questioned again, coughing several times after from the pain in her chest.

Naruto continued to stand over her with a shaking fist mere inches away from her face, before he turned his gaze away towards his brother's body and dropped his fist lifelessly back to his side. "W-why, Haku? Why are you working with someone like Zabuza?" He couldn't fathom an answer as he turned his head back to her, several tears of grief still falling freely down the side of his head and onto Haku's face below. "He does so many terrible things, and he relentlessly kills people just for the hell of it. Why? I just... I can't..."

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration and finally wiped at his eyes with his shirt sleeve, his mind in slight turmoil from everything that had transpired. "Zabuza-sama is **_my_** most precious person, Naruto-kun," she said softly, her voice straining a little. "There's really no question as to whether I would follow him or not." Still seeing the disbelieving look on his face, she decided that she would need to regale him in a story of her past.

Haku took a deep breath and focused her eyes back up to Naruto's. "Fifteen years ago, I was born in a small village in Mizu no Kuni **(Land of Water)**. We had just recovered from a war, a war where people with kekkai genkai played an important role. Once the war finally ended, people with kekkai genkai quickly became feared by the rest of the population and were ostracized for their unique abilities." She gave him a second to retain the information, before she took another deep breath and continued. "I lived on a farm with my mother and father, and we were happy. However, unbeknownst to my father, my mother was the wielder of a kekkai genkai - Hyoton **(Ice Style)**."

She coughed several times and refocused her gaze past Naruto's head and towards the sky as she thought back to her past, her eyes taking on a saddened look. "My father found out one day that my mother and I both possessed the kekkai genkai ability, and he killed her. He would've killed me too, had my kekkai genkai not manifested and allowed me to kill my father and the mob of villagers that were attacking me." She didn't even flinch as she spoke, having long since killed that portion of her heart, in order to be more useful a tool to Zabuza. "After that I began living on the streets, a homeless child that fought and stole in order to survive, until..." For the the first time since Haku was retelling her story, a ghost of a smile appeared on her face, and her eyes softened as she thought back to her day of salvation. "... until Zabuza-sama found me, and took me in. He gave me a purpose in life again, a reason to want to continue living. He became my most precious person..."

She closed her eyes and clenched her fists, before dropping them back down to her sides and speaking in a much softer tone. "But I have failed Zabuza-sama. I am now a broken tool, and I need you to do me a favour Naruto-kun... I need you to kill me."

Naruto's gaze remained impassive throughout her entire explanation, having an inkling as to the kind of feelings she felt when losing her parents. But his eyes widened ever so slightly upon hearing of her 'favour', and he stepped back away from her body and immediately threw his arms up in confusion. "What kind of bullshit favour is that?!" He couldn't believe it. She actually wanted him to kill her. Firstly, he had killed once, and he thoroughly disliked it. Secondly, who **_wanted_** to actually be killed? It was just unheard of for Naruto.

Haku forced herself onto her side and slowly raised herself onto shaky and wobbly legs, spreading them wide apart so that she could find some form of balance. "I can no longer help Zabuza-sama achieve his dreams, therefore, my life is forfeit. Such is the life of a tool, Naruto-kun, so please, I'll ask again... kill me."

Naruto shook his head violently and took a step forward, throwing his arm out at the same time. "I already told you I'm not going to kill you. And stop calling yourself a tool. You're a human being, nothing more, nothing less."

Haku tilted her head to the side and gave Naruto a quizzical look. "I thought you were going to avenge your friend? I thought you said you were going to kill me? Did he not mean anything to you?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes on Haku and fixed her with an impressive glare. "Of course Sasuke was important to me, he was my brother and the only family I had left, and now... now he's gone," he said, glancing back at his brother's motionless body. "And... as much as I want to kill you, make you pay for what you did to him, make you pay for the pain you've caused me, I just... it just isn't right," he finished, closing his eyes and clenching his fists against his sides, desperately fighting to hold back the tears once again.

Haku's gaze softened as she watched Naruto have an inner-war with himself, his exhaustion fueling his already tense-running emotions. "Naruto-kun... about your brother Sasuke... you should know that he-..." Haku's head snapped to the side when she suddenly felt that Zabuza was in trouble, and he would need help. Adrenaline once again began coursing through her veins, and her desire to protect Zabuza fueled her to move her body, despite the painful protests it was giving her. She could be of use one last time for her master, so she willed her body into action. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun..." she started, beginning a chain of hand seals that Naruto recognised as the seals for her** Makyō Hyōshō (Crystal Ice Mirrors) **jutsu, having copied it with his Sharingan, but not having the physical ability to perform it. "... but my purpose has not yet been fulfilled. Take care, Naruto-kun..."

With that, she formed a single Ice Mirror and dove straight in, the mirror dematerialising and moving at light speed towards Kakashi and Zabuza's location. Watching her speed off, Naruto could only marvel at the speed she was displaying. 'She really was stronger and faster than both Sasuke and me... I guess she really did want to die if she let us beat her.' Naruto took one last glance towards Sasuke's unmoving body before shooting off in a **Shunshin (Body Flicker)** towards his sensei. If Haku was going to help Zabuza, there was a good chance that he would need to be there to help his sensei as well. He couldn't let his sensei die too.

**(Down below with Kakashi vs Zabuza)**

**"Raikiri (Lightning Blade)!"**

In a flash of brilliant white light, Kakashi's jutsu struck home and his arm was now burried deep within his target's gut, the blood splattering across his shirt sleeve. His eyes widened in horror though as he was finally able to see who it was that he struck, and he found that his arm was now piercing through the stomach of a black haired girl with chocolate brown eyes. He stared into those brown eyes, watching as the life was slowly sucked out of them, before she finally stopped breathing and all her body weight collapsed against him. 'Rin...'

Zabuza was staring up from his position on the water as well, coughing up all the water that had entered his lungs, not believing his eyes. Just before Kakashi's strike was about to hit him, Haku appeared and destroyed the clone maintaining the water prison before throwing her entire body in front of him and protecting him from the attack by using herself as a human shield. He could only watch with wide, horror-struck eyes as her body slowly slid off Kakashi's arm and fell back on the ocean water below her, her body hitting the water with a resounding clap.

It was only a matter of seconds before Naruto appeared on the calm ocean water below the bridge as well, his eyes widening in shock as he saw Haku's body floating in the water, a gaping hole in the middle of her chest and a pool of blood flowing out around her, framing her body in a bath of scarlet red. It looked like something out of a horror movie. "Haku-chan..."

Kakashi unconsciously took a step back and he felt his right hand slowly start to shake as the blood dripped off. 'Rin... No, not Rin... This girl, she threw herself infront of Zabuza at the last second to protect him from my **Raikiri (Lightning Blade)**. Such devotion...'

They all silently watched as Haku's body slowly drifted off, moving along the calm waves of the ocean, until it connected with the wood of a boat with a soft thud. All their gazes immediately snapped up towards the boat, where a short man was suddenly revealed, standing at the edge of the boat with a walking stick held firmly infront of his body. The short man let out a loud chuckle, the chuckle escalating into a laugh before he sneered evilly at the stand off taking place on the ocean ahead of him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Demon of the Mist... look at you... you look about as demonic as a wet kitten," he said confidently, eliciting a loud chorus of laughing from the men that were now revealed to be flanking him. "It seems that this Kakashi guy really did a number on you."

Zabuza narrowed his eyes on his employer and turned to face him fully. "Gato, what are you doing here? And who are all these thugs?" There was nothing in the plan about Gato showing up mid-fight to aid him in taking out Tazuna, so he was at a loss for what was going on.

Gato once again laughed haughtily, prodding his walking stick into the boat beneath him as he refocused his glare on Zabuza. "There's been a slight change of plans Zabuza. In this new plan of mine, you die right here. You're too expensive for me to afford, so I've decided to take you off my pay roll and cut my losses. You were simply a means to an end, and now that I can dispose of Tazuna myself, I don't need you anymore."

Zabuza's eyes widened considerably as the essence of Gato's words sunk in, before he narrowed his eyes and took on his scowl once more. "Well Kakashi, it seems that we are no longer enemies. Now that I am no longer being employed to assassinate Tazuna, our quarrel is over."

"It would seem so," he said, glancing over at his student and taking in his bruised and battered form, taking note that Sasuke was not with him. He wouldn't jump to any conclusions now, but he decided to wait to get a report from Naruto before making any assupmtions. Assumptions were the mother of all fuck ups after all.

Gato glanced over the side of the boat when it collided with another thud, and noticed with a gleam in his eye that it was the hunter ninja from before. He quickly raised his walking stick and struck at Haku's lifeless body several times, laughing maniacally with each hit. "That... is what you get... for breaking my wrist... you filthy wench..."

Each hit drew a wince from Naruto, and he was slowly losing his ever-shortening temper. It just seemed to be getting smaller the longer they remained her in Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**. He would need to work on that. "Hey, you, are you just gonna let him do that to Haku, Zabuza?!" Naruto asked him incredulously, glaring daggers at the Demon of the Mist with his Sharingan eye.

Kakashi could finally see Naruto's face, and carefully noted that his Sharingan no longer contained three tomoe, but instead had a four pointed pinwheel reminiscent of a shuriken. His eyes widened in shock as he realised what he was staring at. 'The Mangekyou Sharingan... but how, I thought-... oh no... Sasuke!' It was painfully obvious what had happened now.

Zabuza continued to look forward at Gato, his face still in its perpetual scowl as he eyed the short man that just became a major thorn in his side. "Be quiet you brat, Haku's dead now, so just... just forget about it. It doesn't matter."

Naruto clenched his fists against his sides and looked angrily at the ground before whipping his head back towards Zabuza. "How can you just forget about it?! How can just let her get treated like some dog by Gato? Don't you feel anything?" He asked, his eyes slowly starting to tear up again. "You two were together for years, and Haku literally lived for you! Her sole existence and purpose for living was just to see that your goals and dreams would be realised! You were the most important thing to her, and you can stand there and tell me she meant nothing to you?"

By now, tears were at the corners of his eyes, threatening to start dropping at any moment. He dropped his fists to his sides again and stared at the ground, suddenly finding the concrete beneath his feet incredibly interesting. "He sacrificed everything for you... and threw his life away for you; and for what? For you and your stupid dream," he breathed out softly, finally allowing the flood gates to open once again, falling to his knees and clutching tightly at his heart as the double pain of losing Sasuke and now Haku all came crashing into him at once. "You never let her have a dream of her own... but she never cared. As long as she was making sure you realised your dream... and now... now you just toss her aside, like she was nothing, nothing more than a broken tool... it's just... **_so_** wrong... you have absolutely no idea..."

Zabuza's gaze had travelled toward the ocean's surface mid-way through Naruto's rant, and his body would shake every three seconds or so. "You talk too much... you know that brat..." he said softly with his back facing towards them, droplets of water falling into the water below him with splashes that sounded eerily too loud for small drops of water in the current situation. He slowly raised his head towards the cloudy sky, trying futilely to stifle the tears that were now flowing freely down his face as well. "Your words cut deep... deeper than any blade ever could... while she fought you, it was literally tearing at her heart... Haku was always too kind and too soft, always feeling emotions... and now... now I feel them too." He openly sobbed a couple of times and looked towards Haku's floating body again. "Haku was like the daughter I never had, and I watched her grow up right before my eyes, grow up into this beautiful young woman..."

He clenched his eyes shut and forcibly held back any more tears, shaking away the emotions before reaching down and grabbing a hold of his floating Executioner's Blade. Het let off an amused chuckle and faced the blonde haired Genin. "Why so quiet brat? Are you so surprised to discover that I am in fact, human?" Zabuza let out an evil chuckle before he turned back towards Gato, raising his sword in the direction of his boat and his thugs. "This is the end for you Gato. I'm going to show you how demonic I can really be!" Zabuza released his chakra and killing intent, his aura visibly taking on the shape of a demonic head swirling around him, the water around him now rippling uncontrollably.

Naruto had lost consciousness half way through Zabuza's heart to heart, the pain of losing two friends just too much for his heart to handle. Kakashi had picked him up and placed him on his back, making sure to cover Naruto's eye and his as well, the drain on his chakra already more than enough. He couldn't imagine how Naruto's chakra was being drained, having had the Mangekyou activated for as long as it was. He just held Naruto close and decided to watch as Zabuza went to town on Gato and the thugs on the boat. Kakashi knew what it was like to lose a best friend, a brother, so he was just going to be there for Naruto when he'd need it most.

Gato and his men all visibly stiffened, suddenly losing their previous will to fight and the superiority they **_thought_** they held in numbers. Before they even knew what was happening, the Demon of the Mist was upon them. Blood was sprayed all over the boat, body parts and bits of flesh flew through the air and splashed into the ocean below, turning the immediate ocean water around the vessel a bloody red. The sight was truly appauling, the Konoha shinobi finally able to witness the Demon of the Mist when he was angered beyond belief. This was the price they would pay for killing Zabuza's precious person.

Zabuza had leveled the entire boat by the time he was done dealing with Gato and his thugs, and he flopped exhaustedly onto the water beside Kakashi and Naruto with Haku clutched firmly against his body. Nobody said anything as Kakashi and Zabuza stood up with their respective charges in their arms, one alive and the other dead. They slowly made their way up to the top of the bridge once again, the mission finally having come to an end with the death of Gato, albeit at a cost too high for the shinobi if they had to admit it.

They got back to the top of the bridge and were greeted with an extremely strange sight. There was a multitude of Gato's thugs up here as well, but they weren't going to be a problem. They had all already been dealt with, it seemed, by a hoard of Naruto clones which he had no idea had ever been created, but he surmised that they must have been the ones Naruto made at Tazuna's house, and they obviously followed a group of thugs this way. All the villagers were gathered near the clones, all clad in various items of kitchen ware and homemade weapons, apparently having arrived here to help deal with Gato. They were all cheering around the clones of Naruto's, chanting 'The Hero of Nami,' continuously as they tossed the clones into the air. It was truly a sight, and Kakashi could see the hope that was present in all the eyes of the villagers. With Gato finally out of the picture, things would be turning around for the villagers of Nami no Kuni **(Land of Waves)**.

He turned his head around and found Sakura and Tazuna at the far end of the bridge. Sakura's head was resting on the motionless body of Sasuke, her body clearly shaking in uncontrollable sobs. He unconsciously lowered his head when spotted the body of his other student, and couldn't help but feel responsible. He'd just lost another person who he had started to keep close to his heart, and the pain he was feeling, like so many times before, was unbearable. It ripped at his heart. His head snapped up again at the sound of a shrieking Sakura, thinking they were perhaps under attack by stragglers of Gato's men. His heart skipped a beat though as he watched Sasuke slowly sit up, having never truly been dead in the first place.

"Sasuke-kun, you're alive... I can't believe it... you're really still alive..." Sakura announced through heaving sobs, placing all her weight on top of him in a body crunching hug and laughing soothingly.

"S-Sakura... it's really hard to... breathe with you on top of me," Sasuke breathed out slowly, using whatever strength he had left to push himself into a seated position. His entire body was numb and stiff, and his arms and legs felt like they weighed ten times heavier than normal, but with much struggling, he slowly sat up and looked around, trying to find his bearings. "Where's Naruto... and that hunter ninja," he said slowly, his eyes coming in and out of focus.

Sakura shrugged casually and wiped her eyes, stifling any further sobs that threatened to come out. "I'm not too sure exactly. When we came here, we only found you lying here on the ground, and Kakashi and Zabuza went over the side onto the ocean, so I'd imagine he went there."

Sasuke was about to ask her again, having not really heard her response, but saw Kakashi slowly approaching with a somewhat neutral expression in his one visible eye. Having lived with a masked individual for several years, he became quite proficient in reading expressions through one eye alone. His brother was a lot easier to read though, that was for sure. It was then that his eyes fell on the bundle that Kakashi was carrying bridal style. His breathing ceased and his eyes widened as he stared at the still form of his brother, not being able to see from here if he was still breathing. He looked up from Naruto to Kakashi and his sensei must have seen him, because he was giving him a reassuring eye smile. He looked sheepish for a second before going back to staring up at the sky.

"Well gang, looks like this is about the end of our very first C-rank mission," Kakashi chirped all too cheerfully, seeming to not be bothered by the fact that they had just had a massive death match on top of this bridge, or the fact that Zabuza was following him. If he wasn't worried, then they weren't going to be either. It wasn't to be said though that they weren't on guard.

"Kakashi-sensei, is... is Naruto all right?" asked a now concerned Sakura, finally taking her eyes off Sasuke to query about her remaining teammate.

Kakashi gave her an eye smile and then shifted Naruto over onto his back so that they could now see his face. "Yes Sakura, Naruto is fine, he's just exhausted is all," he said reassuringly, quickly producing a Shadow Clone to pick up Sasuke and take him back to the house. "Now, I think that we're all in need of a little rest, what do you say?"

He was giving them that eye smile again, and Sakura couldn't be sure if he was being sarcastic with them or if he was genuinely concerned about getting them to rest. Nevertheless, they all slowly began the walk back to Tazuna's house, making sure to dispel all the Naruto clones before they left. Who knew what they'd get up to if left alone for too long...

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Jutsu List

Hyoton: Yukihana no Jutsu** (Ice Style: Snow Flower Jutsu) **: A-rank Ninjutsu, Offensive, Kekkai Genkai. Haku uses her kekkai genkai to cause snow to fall from the top of her dome, whereby each of the snowflakes created by this jutsu becomes a deadly weapon. When the snowflakes collide with any solid surface, they will instantly grow into magnificent icy flowers that will immiediately shoot out icy spears in all directions, freexing over into a 'snow flower', as the jutsu's name suggests. (This idea was created from a jutsu on , and the original is property of B14)

Kuchiyose: Suiton: Tsuiga no Jutsu** (Summoning: Water Style: Fanged Pursuit Jutsu)** : B-rank, Offensive, Tracking Ninjutsu. Just like with the Doton version, the user marks an opponent with his or her blood, and roll out a scroll and smear their blood across it. After placing the scroll between their hands and making the seals, the ninken are summoned and travel throught the water, following the scent of the blood through use of the blood on the scroll and on the target. The fact that they are underwater does not dull their ability to track the blood.

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**AN: So, that's chapter 8, what'd you guys think? I made a spin off of Kakashi's jutsu, and i think it works pretty well, i hope it makes sense though. Also, i wasn't really sure about the whoel cauterising of his wound part with the Raikiri... i thought it was pretty plausible, but the fact that he was sending a helluva lot of electricity into his body, maybe he should've electrocuted himself, but that's where i came in with the chakra control part, and maybe it would be possible to lower the damage by sending less chakra? Just go with it please, i think it makes sense... somewhat =D**

** Anyways, i've still got about a week left of University before i finally get my first break, and although i'll be working a bit during the break, i'll have more time to write so i'll try and get some progress done on the next chapter, so that's some good news :)**

**Also, as i said in the last chapter, please review and tell me where you guys feel the story should be heading in the future, as in, post-chunin exams. I'll set up a poll as soon as there are a good amount of ideas. Again, i will try and update as fast as i can, but with University, it could be a little more difficult than i thought, so i won't be able to give you a definite time on updates, but please bear with me =) Thanks for reading, until next time...**

**Justin**


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